Aubrey interviews artists and married partners John Gutoskey and Peter Sparling about their innovative artwork and their shared "Liminal Landscapes" gallery show. Liminality is defined as a disoriented, in- between state, and a state that facilitates the disruption of both spatial and temporal dimensions.

Moving freely between video, dance and painting, Sparling creates hybrid liminal worlds based on the moving body with calligraphy-like brush strokes on black canvas and large-scale murals. Traces of motion accumulate to create kinetically charged impressions or energy fields of a dancer’s presence.

As a gay artist, Gutoskey “queers” his mixed-media monoprints (with collage, maculature, pochoir, and alcohol gel transfers) and invests in them a site for transformation, transition and self-reflection. 

About Peter Sparling:
Peter Sparling is the Rudolf Arnheim Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Dance and an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor Emeritus at University of Michigan. A graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and The Juilliard School, Sparling was a member of the José Limón Dance Company (1971-73) and principal dancer with Martha Graham Dance Company (1973-87). As Graham’s assistant, he coached Rudolf Nureyev and collaborated with her on many new works. He has performed and staged Graham’s works all over the world and has appeared with the company twice on PBS Dance in America. His video curtain warmers, Beautiful Captives: Martha Graham and the Cinematic Id, Variations of Angels and Sacred/Profane have opened three of the company’s New York seasons.

About John Gutoskey:
John Gutoskey is an artist, designer, printmaker, & collector living and working in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  John earned his BFA in theater design with a minor in sculpture from Webster University in St. Louis.  He earned his MFA from the University of Michigan’s School of Art & Design where he studied printmaking & installation art, and also completed a certificate in LGBTQ Studies. John has shown his work across the US, including the Detroit Institute of Art, Grand Rapids Art Museum, Society for Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh, Indianapolis Art Center, Kinsey Institute, Ella Sharp Museum, and in galleries in Chicago, NYC, Detroit, Toledo, & Ann Arbor. His series of monoprints honoring the victims from the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida in 2016, “PULSE Nightclub: 49 Elegies”, won the prize for Best Juried 2D at Artprize X 2018 and the Alpha Omega Award for Religious Art 2018. John is the owner of JG Studio and the A2 Print Studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan.