Join us in our illuminating conversation with Kinselland!
As collaborators Anqwenique and DS work in the areas of performance art, visual art, and music performance. The work is intimate and shares pieces of their personal lives as a married artist couple while also challenging them to create in new ways and explore intimate everyday activities as artistic expression.
DS Kinsel expresses his creativity through the mediums of painting, installation, curating, action-painting, non-traditional performance and #HASHTAGS. Kinsel’s work puts focus on themes of space keeping, urban tradition, hip-hop, informalism and Cultural Re-Appropriation. As a visual artist working primarily through the mediums of painting, installation, hip-hop, and web based media platforms, he uses these mediums as weapons and tools towards cultural space keeping and creative place making. He explores self perspective and personal awareness through place and how association with locations can shape perceptions.
D.S. has a deep community based practice and is the co-founder of BOOM Concepts, founded in 2014. BOOM Concepts is a creative hub dedicated to the advancement of black and brown artists representing marginalized communities. BOOM serves as a space for field building, knowledge sharing, mentorship, and storytelling. BOOM Concepts consistently challenges artists and communities to find new and innovative ways to share their own narratives.
Anqwenique is an extremely versatile vocalist and educator specializing in opera, classical music, jazz and soul. Anqwenique has performed lead operatic roles, recitals, immersive theater experiences, jazz combos and more. As the founder and director of Groove Aesthetic, a Pittsburgh based multidisciplinary artist collective experimenting with contemporary performance and collaborative processes. Groove Aesthetic and partnerships with organizations like Chamber Music Pittsburgh have given a platform for artists across identity and discipline to collaborate and create wonderful experiences for audiences. In recent years, she has taken a wellness approach to singing and performing, hosting workshops that share with everyday folks how to use their voices for self-care practice. Anqwenique has also been very active in the arts and education community as teaching artist, consultant, program manager and advisor. Currently she serves asDirector of Programs for Arts ed Collaborative. She has also served as the Studio Manager of BOOM Concepts working to provide affordable studio space and resources to artists and creative entrepreneurs.
The Westmoreland Museum of American Art established a new Artist-in-Residency Program, made possible by generous support from The Pittsburgh Foundation, in collaboration with BOOM Concepts in September 2020. The program, which will feature 4 to 6 artists annually, emphasizes the Museum’s commitment to engaging and supporting Black and marginalized artists, to promoting equity in the arts, and to sharing compelling and meaningful cultural experiences with the regional community. Inaugural artists selected include Anqwenique, D.S. Kinsel, Gavin Benjamin and Madame Christiane Dolores.
https://www.pittsburghcurrent.com/boom-concepts-artists-communities/
https://pittsburghfoundation.org/ds-kinsel
https://thewestmoreland.org/blog/in-conversation-with-thomas-agnew-and-d-s-kinsel-of-boom-concepts/
W.A.G.E.