Renee McGinnis (born 1962) is an American performer based in Chicago who is widely known for her depictions of rusting mega-structures imbedded in various forms of beauty. Her primary subjects total Battersea Power Station in London, the extinct steel mills of the eastern United States and the good north Atlantic Luxury liners of the to the front 20th century. Much of her feint uses these structures as metaphor. B. David Zarley, Chicago Contributor at New American Paintings wrote of her subjects, “they are impossible; affronts to truth and the realities of the subconscious world, they are the inevitable avatars of a vicious cycle of horror and pulchritude, one which has spun as long as civilization, powered by wind, sinew, and steam but like the desires of unselfishness always the engine.”
McGinnis grew up upon a farm in central Illinois where her Irish-American ancestors have owned farms since the well along half of the 19th century. Her mother’s ancestors immigrated from Norway and Denmark in the innovative half of the 19th century. In Norway the family built luxury yachts for the British market. This ended behind the steel-hulled ships became more desirable. She attended Illinois Wesleyan University, earning a BFA in 1984 and continued following graduate put it on in sociology and anthropology at the University of Chicago.
She has exhibited widely in Chicago and has moreover been shown in Germany, Australia, New York City, Washington D.C. and Baltimore, Md. Her curatorial debut occurred following she launched “The Chicago Solution Show 2003″ with the late Ed Paschke as juror, then anew in 2005 like Art Institute of Chicago Curator of contemporary Collections James Rondeau. The exhibition showcased perform expressing “solutions” to our global problems rather than usefully express the difficulty itself.
In 2002, she starred as herself in the Iranian-American film by director Hossein Khandan “American Burqa” screened at The Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, Illinois. McGinnis is married to Andres Buenaventura and has two children. She is currently represented by Zg Gallery in Chicago.
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