Colin Ginks
Contact: colinginks@gmail.com
Telephone: +351 918067300
Instagram: colin.ginks
UmbigoLAB : link
Visual artist; writing; stage.
I am a UK-born visual artist, writer and performer living and working in Lisbon, Portugal since 2009. My practise involves an increasingly wide array of media: founded on painting and drawing, it has expanded to include photography, installation, video, sound and writing as an artistic process, and orbits reflections on gender, identity, relationships (societal and personal) and the individual’s place in the collective. As a homosexual male, our common history and activisms have also informed to a great extent my practice, as I seek to preserve, explore and re-evaluate the numerous marginal legacies that make up a complex and diverse community. As an artist I am self-taught. Finding ways to portray human emotion and empathy in my work, through echoes of individuals and community, is something that will only become more frequent, while reflecting my fascination for the processes of memory and its preservation.
Solo Exhibitions
June 30 - July 31 2022: “The Beautiful Ones”, Omnu Creative Houses, Belém, Portugal. Curator: ArtNom.
September 9 - October 9 2021: “Happiness Lives Here, Happiness Dies Here”, Biblioteca de Camões, Lisbon.
January 29 - April 30 2021: “When We Touch We Burn”, virtual exhibition, Lobo del Mar gallery, US/ES.
2020: “Constellationing”, Espaço Santa Catarina, Lisbon.
2018: "Oh Fuck Yeah", A Montanha gallery, Lisbon. Curator: Eva Oddo.
2017: "No Space", Biblioteca Arquitecto Cosmelli Sant'Anna, Lisbon.
2014: “Senhoras e senhores”, Liberdade Provisória, Lisbon.
2009: “At the Edges I am Also”, Lorrie Saunders Gallery, Norfolk, Virginia, USA. Curator: Lorrie Saunders.
2005: “In Cock We Trust”, LGBT Museum, NYC.
2002: “Lusco Fusco”, Frágil, Lisbon.
Selected Group Exhibitions
December 2023: Overssounds, Roseberry Road Studios, Bath, United Kingdom
July - August 2023: Cellphone Library, Vox Populi gallery, Philadelphia, United States.
July 2023: GPN show, Lighthouse Gallery, London, United Kingdom.
June - July 2023: Muito Além da Parada, Objetos do Olhar Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil. Curator: Filipe Chagas.
September - October 2022: “My Father is a Dirty Slutty Transcendental Girlie”, Espaço Caramujo, Almada, Portugal.
September 2020: Revolution on the March”, Espaço Santa Catarina, Lisbon.
June 2020: Video, sound, text work (Un)natural Virus selected for inclusion in the Art in Quarantine dossier (online and print) of Umbigo magazine, Portugal.
2019: “Sustainability”, Friedensbezirk, Bramau, Austria.
2017: Inaugural "Pride show"; commemorating 50 years of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality, Worcester, UK.
2016: "Eu não sou uma ilha”, group show, Espaço Santa Catarina. Lisbon. Curator: Genoveva Oliveira.
2006: “Art, Actually”, group show, Leslie-Lohman Museum, NYC.
Biennales and Festivals
2023: "Boyfriend Number Two”, art film: Vienna PFF , Vienna, Austria; Warsaw PPFF, Warsaw, Poland; PFF Barcelona; Homo Humour: Queer Male Artists Film, Folkestone, London, UK.
“One of the Most Beautiful Experiences I Ever Had”, art film, Vienna Queer Film Festival; Bleu Paris Festival, Paris.
“Therapythia”, art film, Planet Queer Festival, Akbar, Los Angeles, USA.
2022: “Therapythia”, art film, Bienal de Arte Contemporânea de Cerveira, Portugal.
"Boyfriend Number Two”, art film: Athens PFF Festival, Athens, Greece.
2021: “One of the Most Beautiful Experiences I Ever Had”, art film, Homotopia Festival, Liverpool, UK.
Awards and Residences
2021: Photographic art residency at Siilk Gallery, Athens.
Internationalisation funding grant from DGArtes, Portugal.
2019: Artist Residency at KuBa KulturBahnhof, Germany. One of two selected artists for May.
2009-2006: The Saint At Large, NYC. Collaboration in a wide range of cultural media projects, exhibitions, parties, concerts and events as contributing artist and artistic director.
Theatre-Film-Performance
2022-2023: Lead actor in “The 24th Mr. Phipps”, full-length feature by film director/visual artist Petri Salo.
2022: “Self Portrait: Como é que a gente luta”. Theatre work. Actor/writer. Teatro-Estúdio António Assunção, Almada, Portugal, June 17-19.
2018-2017: "A minha Europa / My Europe" theatre work. Previews: Teatro-Estúdio António Assunção, Almada Portugal, December 2017; Premiere: Teatro da Comuna, Lisbon, May 2018. Touring (Mostra, Auditório Fernando Lopes-Graça, Almada).
Curation
2013:“Loose Holes Festival”, co-curator, international queer performance festival, Lisbon and Porto.
2012: “Isto Também Sou Eu”/”I Am This Also”, group show, participant and curator. Alongside participating artists João Pedro Vale, Rodrigo Oliveira, Ana-Perez Quiroga, and others. Liberdade Provisória, Lisbon.
2012-2011: Pink parties, queer events in select Lisbon venues.
2006-2005: Burger parties, queer events at Galapagos Art Space, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, US.
Publications and press:
2022: Group show: “My Father…”, ARTECAPITAL link here (Portuguese); UMBIGO Link here (English).
“Come fruta como yo”, print edition of 50. Curator: Charlie Welch, Philadelphia, US.
2021: Post-residency feature, Siilk Gallery, Athens, Greece. https://siilkgallery.com/artists/colin-ginks
2019: Falo magazine #9 (Brazil), September 2019, https://www.falomagazine.com (Portuguese, login needed).
2018: Umbigo magazine (Portugal), http://umbigomagazine.com/en/blog/2018/10/21/▉▉▉▉-logo-existo/ (English)
http://umbigomagazine.com/pt/blog/2018/10/21/▉▉▉▉-logo-existo/ (Portuguese)
2004: “Umbigo - Coordenadas do Corpo na Arte Contemporânea”, hardback edition. 176 pages.