John Gutoskey

‍

The 8 (from a series of 22) mixed-media monoprints in this series, “Liminal Landscapes”, are based on the concepts of liminality from both anthropology and queer theory. They are an exploration of what makes a space liminal or queer, and how queer space is different from heteronormative space. These monoprints are visualizations of the mental and emotional landscapes of liminality (or queerness). They also explore what it feels like as a queer person to inhabit a largely heterosexual world, and why queer (liminal) space is so important to the LGBTQ community.
Liminal (or liminality) is defined as being in-between, and queerness is a form of this in-betweenness. If you identify as queer, you are neither male nor female. You are ambiguous and figured as somewhere in-between masculine and feminine or figured as existing outside the norms of society. In the same way that a queer person is a type of liminal persona, a queer space is a form of liminal space; a queer space, like liminal space, can be a space that is disorienting and out of ordinary time and place.

Explore his virtual gallery below:

About John:

John Gutoskey is an artist, designer, printmaker, & collector living and working in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  John earned his BFA in theater design with a minor in sculpture from Webster University in St. Louis.  He earned his MFA from the University of Michigan’s School of Art & Design where he studied printmaking & installation art, and also completed a certificate in LGBTQ Studies.

Early in his career, John worked as a costume designer and as a specialist in costume crafts, where he worked on productions in New York City and across the US in theater, opera, dance, film, and television.  He has taught classes in millinery, mask making, and fabric dyeing at the University of Michigan in the Department of Theater.

John has shown his work across the US, including the Detroit Institute of Art, Grand Rapids Art Museum, Society for Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh, Indianapolis Art Center, Kinsey Institute, Ella Sharp Museum, and in galleries in Chicago, NYC, Detroit, Toledo, & Ann Arbor. His series of monoprints honoring the victims from the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida in 2016, “PULSE Nightclub: 49 Elegies”, won the prize for Best Juried 2D at Artprize X 2018 and the Alpha Omega Award for Religious Art 2018. John is the owner of JG Studio and the A2 Print Studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

‍