Well known as a text based artist, Justin Quinn’s new foray into non-objective painting is more loose and reactive than his previously tightly rendered text based prints and drawings. Known for his multi-year conceptual project creating text based works sourced from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Quinn has purged narrative for a tactile, small scale and process driven approach to painting.

The new work combines atmospheric landscape evocative of the artist’s native snowy Minnesota with loose maze-like geometric abstractions alive with the tension of angled lines and romantic coloration. Working from the outer edge of the surface, Quinn worked intuitively inward painting concentric rectangles toward a center where a formal composition was ultimately resolved. The process of finding center aligns with Quinn’s interest in literal secret or sacred places, with each painting an exercise in finding.

Justin Quinn earned a BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Superior and an MFA in printmaking and MA in art history from the University of Iowa. Justin is currently a Professor of Art at St. Cloud State University, and preceding that, taught at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. Recent exhibitions include: Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama (solo, forthcoming, October 2018); Word Dance : Selections from the Collection of the JoAnn Gonzalez-Hickey Collection, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO (2017); Portland Art Museum, Portland, ME (2016); TuckUnder Projects, Minneapolis, Minnesota (solo, 2016); Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst, Illinois (2015); University of Nevada, Reno, NV (solo, 2014); The Old Jail Art Center, Albany, Texas (2014); and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota (solo, 2012).