John Brendan Guinan is an interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY. His practice includes collage, assemblage, textile, readymades, soft sculpture and performance. Guinan's work examines concepts related to class, shelter, displacement, ritual and the sacred through the reframing of found objects and materials. Threaded throughout his oeuvre are references to venerated objects and and the merging of high and low-brow materials - sleeping bags, bungee cords, tents, priest chasubles, crosses, prayer cards, ratchet straps, tarp, waxed cotton, gaberdine, pima cotton, and leather among others. 

Guinan's art practice is rooted in his lived experience - raised in the Catholic Worker tradition emphasizing pacifism, personalism, and Anarchism - along with years of working with conflict-affected and marginalized communities. He was born at home in the Logan Circle neighborhood of inner city Washington, DC above the homeless shelter and soup kitchen; founded and run by his parents. His father, a former Catholic Priest and well known activist and author, J. Edward Guinan (Dec. 2015) was a stalwart in the social justice movement and founder of Community for Creative Non-Violence. Guinan has participated in both solo and group shows in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Richmond, and Miami. He was the subject of 'Why I Paint', a documentary produced by Academy Award winning Fine Films in 2018.