Artist Statement
In Maroon, a new body of work by Joey Quiñones, the artist explores the layered meanings of the word “maroon.” Commonly known as a color, “maroon” also functions as a verb—to be abandoned or stranded, especially on an island. Historically, it was also the name of an enslaved individual who escaped bondage and established communities in alliance with Indigenous individuals in the Caribbean. Quiñones uses this multifaceted term as a conceptual entry point to confront the constructed nature of identity, examining how systems of race, class, gender, and sexuality are ritualized in both private and public life.

In “Maroon,” Quiñones considers questions of community. How can one be free and not participate in the oppression of others? How much does one bend and shrink to conform to a community’s expectations? In what way does the violence of our past permeate our present, and how do we collage our experiences as a way to understand our own racialized, classed, and gendered histories?

With fibers and clay as conceptual anchors, Quiñones presents domestic items – chairs, tables, weavings, paintings – in dialogue with archival research, especially from the 18th and 19th centuries, to challenge notions of family, femininity and belonging. These household items, prized and valuable commodities passed down from generation to generation are not, as Quiñones shows, simply innocent cultural markers, but can symbolize power—who matters and who does not. Quiñones draws from the rich material lineages of West Africa, Spain, and the Americans to create objects that carry memory, tension, and defiance, allowing viewers to question the historical legacy of colonization and enslavement that lies within their domestic medium.

Artist Biography
Joey Quiñones is a sculptor, ceramicist, and fiber 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 nationally and internationally at venues such as the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the Akron Art Museum, the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, the Crocker Museum in Sacramento, and the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library in Delaware. 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.