DS Kinsel
Mama Used To Say
Fightin For It
Flourishing Love
Cranium Vision
Heard On The Street
WHAT THEY TALKIN’ BOUT
Collage Works and Textual Artifacts by DS Kinsel
What They Talkin’ Bout presents five site-specific, text-based collage works by DS Kinsel that collide narrative, practice, and time. Inspired by traditional hip-hop methodologies, each work samples intensity, volume, rhythm, and pattern from its surrounding environment, transforming these influences into layered visual essays. Created during Kinsel’s year-long BOOM Concepts x Artist Image Resource (AIR) residency, the exhibition serves as a visual monograph documenting a pivotal period of artistic development and experimentation. The works reflect an evolved visual language shaped by AIR as both a printmaking facility and creative ecosystem, Kinsel’s extensive print archive, and the iconography and material practices of fellow resident artists Quashawn Whitlock and Bekezela Mguni. The resulting works explore themes of authoritarian oppression, graffiti, eroticism, legacy, interpersonal conflict, ancestry, mortality, liberatory practice, and love. Through appropriation, repetition, and layering, Kinsel constructs a body of work that treats collage as both an act of remembrance and a strategy for cultural reassembly – a collection and review of “what they talkin bout” in the streets and across various communities.
DS Kinsel is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, cultural producer, and creative entrepreneur based in Pittsburgh, PA. His practice spans painting, printmaking, collage, installation, curation, performance, and public art, often engaging themes of space-keeping, urban tradition, hip-hop culture, informalism, and cultural re-appropriation. Through a joy-driven and agitational lens, Kinsel’s work challenges conventional narratives and amplifies Black expereinces in contemporary culture.
Kinsel is the co-founder of BOOM Concepts, a creative hub established in 2014 to support artists from historically marginalized communities. BOOM has curated over 50 exhibitions, paid out more than $500,000 in artist fees, and produced over 200 events across the U.S. It is nationally recognized for its commitment to field-building, mentorship, and cultural storytelling. In 2021, BOOM was selected to represent the Greater Pittsburgh Region on the Google Arts & Culture platform and named a Cultural Treasure by The Heinz Endowments and The Ford Foundation. Kinsel’s accolades include being named to Pittsburgh Couriers Men of Excellence, Magazine’s PUMP 40 Under 40, PGH Tech Council’s Creative of the Year, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Top Ten People to Meet. Kinsel currently serves on the board of Artist Communities Alliance.
YOU CAN HELP
Please consider a donation to BOOM Concepts and help the advancement of Black, Brown, Queer and Femme artists. BOOM Concepts is located in Pittsburgh’s Garfield Neighborhood and since 2014 has curated 50+ exhibitions on-site, paid out over $300k in artists fees and produced 200+ events across the country. BOOM Concepts serves as a space for field building, knowledge sharing, mentorship, and storytelling. In its 10th year, BOOM Concepts continues to work with creatives to find innovative strategies around entrepreneurship and artistic practice.
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