Justin Quinn
Justin Quinn, professor of art, is one of two inaugural recipients of the McKnight Fellowship for Printmakers.
Quinn is the recipient of an unrestricted $25,000 grant that acknowledges excellence in printmaking in support of his work throughout his fellowship year. The fellowship is sponsored by Highpoint Center for Printmaking and its funding partner, the Minnesota non-profit McKnight Foundation.
In addition to the funding, the fellowship grants Quinn full access to Highpoint’s workshop facilities, technical and materials support and professional feedback during studio visits by Minnesota arts professionals and national experts in printmaking.
He and his co-fellow, former St. Cloud State professor Jenny Schmid, will also be featured in public presentations, lectures and an exhibition at the conclusion of their grant year.
“This is a huge honor,” said Quinn, who added that the fellowship will give him a chance to reach audiences outside of Minnesota and hear feedback from national artists.
In addition to being a professor, Quinn is an artist who works primarily on paper and canvas. Current themes in his work include language functions, anti-intellectualism and the void.
He is represented by Conduit gallery in Dallas, Michael Martin in San Francisco and Satellite in Berlin. Justin has also exhibited at Andrea Rosen in New York, Shane Campbell’s Boom in Chicago, Fleisher-Ollman Gallery in Philadelphia, the International Print Center in New York and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
His work has been reviewed in Art in America, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Dallas Morning News, Minneapolis Star Tribune and New American Paintings. Public collections include the Achenbach Foundation in San Francisco, Berlin Kupfrerstichkabinett in Berlin, Musee des Beaux-Arts Le Locle in Switzerland and the Sackner Archive of Visual and Concrete Poetry in Miami.
Quinn said his McKnight Fellowship speaks to the quality of faculty at St. Cloud State University because he is just the latest faculty member in his department to earn the honor, he said.
The McKnight Artist Fellowship programs also support midcareer creatives working in 10 other artistic disciplines. Overall, the McKnight Foundation contributes about $1.7 million per year through its statewide fellowships.
Art Department McKnight Fellows
Past St. Cloud State Art Department McKnight Artist Fellows:
Shana Kaplow – 1991, 1997
Alexa Horochowski – 2003, 2014
Bruce Tapola – 1994, 2000, 2017
Keisuke Mizuno – 2002, 2013
Peter Happel Christian – 2011
