Artist Bio

Maryland based artist, Anna Kaminski, started by making work in a photojournalistic capacity during the Iraq war nine years ago and has slowly moved  her practice through painting and ceramics into the realm of sculpture and installation. 

Kaminski has worked in education, as a social justice organizer, and has spent five years working in direct client care in social services with women, returning citizens, and other marginalized groups. Her creative work is deeply informed by the relationships forged in these positions. She has exhibited at galleries and collectives in Maryland, Washington D.C., and in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Her work as part of the inaugural residency program with Halcyon, a D.C. based foundation, in late 2016 and her work organizing and disrupting with CODEPINK Women for Peace  lead her to study philosophy to understand more deeply how to question and challenge problematic systems more effectively. Kaminski obtained her MA from St. John’s College this past May.

Artist Statement

“Be a philosopher, but amidst all your philosophy, be still a man (woman).” The sentiment David Hume conveys in this quote sticks with me, but in my mind I rewrite it as “Be an artist, but amidst all your art, be a human.” This slight reframing is what connects all my life experiences into one artistic and performative whole. Following in the theoretical footsteps of relational aesthetics, my life has been one of  juxtapositions and divergent paths that make up a creative practice that ebbs and flows.

Crossing a terrain of  mediums including sculpture, photography, and installation my work culminates in elaborate  scenes that encourage viewers to engage emotionally. Always socially engaged, my work places audiences inside these scenes in order to force confrontation between the audience and the broader themes of the work itself.  While not always overtly political, I work through metaphor to get an audience to connect to the broader philosophical and psychological questions that underlie the behavioral topographies defining our political and personal relationships and dynamics of power, justice, and complacency.