Artist Statement

As an artist, I create mixed media sculptures that confront the constructed nature of identity - examining how systems of race, class, gender, and sexuality are ritualized in both private and public life. Through a dialogue between domestic items and archival research, especially of the 18th and 19th century, I aim to challenge notions of family, femininity, and belonging, by foregrounding the enduring impact of enslavement across the U.S., Caribbean, and Americas. With fibers and clay as my conceptual anchors, I draw from the rich material lineages of West Africa, Spain, and the Americas to create objects that can carry memory, tension, and defiance. Domestic household items have a long history and rather than seeing them as innocent cultural markers, I want viewers to question how these prized and valuable commodities, handed down from generation to generation, are actually symbols for how the world is seen. Culturally they convey who matters socially, and who does not. By transforming objects to more accurately convey the human cost involved, I aim to have viewers question the historical legacy of colonization and enslavement. I aim to have viewer recognize how the past still lives on with us in the present as evidenced by our complex identities and social lives.

Bio

Joey Quiñones is a fiber and ceramic artist. Their work focuses on African American and Caribbean history,  as well as the intricacies of queer, Afro-Puerto Rican identity. They were selected as an Emerging Artist of 2020 by Ceramics Monthly, an Augusta Savage Grant recipient by the National Sculpture Society, and an Annual Prize Finalist by Manifest Gallery. Their work has been shown at venues such as the Belger Arts Center, Manifest Gallery, the Akron Art Museum, the Contemporary Arts Center, the Crocker Museum, the Elaine L. Jacob Gallery, and the Winterthur Museum. In the 2024-2025 academic year they served as the McAndless Distinguished Professor Chair at Eastern Michigan University. They have an MFA in Studio Art from Indiana University, Bloomington, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Iowa. They have had residencies at Vermont Studio Center, the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library, and the Arts/Industry residency in Foundry at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center.  They are currently the Artist-in-Residence/Head of the Fiber Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI.

All images subject to copyright 2025