BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MICH.- Today, Paul Sacaridiz, the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Director of Cranbrook Academy of Art, announced that Joey Quiñones has been named the new Artist-in-Residence and Head of the Fiber Department. Quiñones replaces Mark Newport, who will be leaving the Academy to pursue full-time studio practice.

Quiñones is an accomplished artist working across a wide range of materials, whose work focuses on African American and Caribbean history, as well as the intricacies of Afro-Latinx identity. They hold an MFA in Studio Art from Indiana University, Bloomington, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Iowa. Most recently, they established the Fibers and Mixed Media studio in the Sculpture Dimensional Studies Division at Alfred University, where they served as an Assistant Professor of Sculpture. Prior to teaching at Alfred, Quiñones spent 17 years teaching English at Earlham College in Indiana.

As an artist, they have been the recipient of numerous residencies, including at the Vermont Studio Center, the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library in Delaware; and the Arts/Industry program at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin. They have shown their work widely, with recent and upcoming exhibitions at the Belger Arts Center, the Akron Arts Museum, the Winterthur Museum, the University of Minnesota, and DePaw University, among others. They were named a 2020 Emerging Artist by Ceramics Monthly in recognition of their cross-disciplinary work and were a finalist for the Manifest Gallery Annual Prize. They also received an Honorable Mention for the James Renwick Alliance Chrysalis Award.

In the recent exhibition La Gruta/The Grotto at Belger Arts Center, Quiñones discusses how their work explores the importance of the highly ritualized practices of race, class, gender, sexuality, and religion. The work in the exhibition is an invitation to contemplate narratives of the domestic, family, and womanhood – and how they are complicated by a history of slavery, stolen labor, and racism, particularly in the U.S. and the Caribbean. They use materials that have historical and personal significance, saying, “I work with all materials, but consider fibers and ceramics to be foundational to my process and thinking because of their long history and aesthetic traditions in places like West Africa, Spain, and the Americas.”

About the position at Cranbrook, Quiñones says, “In this particular moment, fibers as a medium is an expansive, diverse artistic field, and has so much to say in the world of art and craft. My study of fibers has allowed me a profound connection to time, history, and place, and it has shaped how I approach materiality in general." Quiñones further states, “It is an honor to have the opportunity to mentor a new generation of voices eager to develop their own connections to the world through fibers. I know how transformative graduate education can be, and this role will allow me to grow as an artist and educator alongside the talented individuals who study here. Building off of the good work of Mark Newport, I am thrilled to usher in this next chapter in Cranbrook's fibers history.”

The Fiber department at Cranbrook was formed by Loja Saarinen in 1932 and has been home to some of the most celebrated fiber artists in history, including Loja Saarinen (1932-1935, 1937-1942), Maja Anderson Wirde (1929-1933), Lilliam Holm (1934-1937), Marianne Strengell (1937-1962), Robert Sailors (1944-1947), Glen Kaufman (1962-1966), Robert Kidd (1967-1969), Gerhardt Knodel (1970-1996), Margo Mensing (1996-1997), Jane Lackey (1997-2007), and Mark Newport (2007-present). Quiñones will be the 12th Fiber Artist-in-Residence.

"I am thrilled to welcome Joey Quiñones to Cranbrook, as they prepare to lead the Fiber department into its next chapter," said Paul Sacaridiz. "Their work, which is rooted in archival and historical research and explores the intricacies of queer, Afro-Latinx identity, also underscores the interdisciplinary nature of the program at the Academy. Joey brings a deep commitment to materiality and critical inquiry, and their work addresses some of the most complex issues of our time. As the next Artist-in-Residence, they will work with a remarkable cohort of students who collectively are helping to shape the future of the field and pushing the boundaries of craft, art, and design. Their appointment is a significant moment in the history of the Academy, and an essential step in terms of representation within the larger field of Fibers. We could not be more excited about the department's future and all that Joey will bring to Cranbrook and our students."

Quiñones will begin their tenure in September of 2023.