As Americans, we often forget that an outsider’s view of the American landscape is often quite different from our own. Through his brightly colored oil paintings and his socially and politically charged watercolor sketches, Colin Ginks examines the country with foreign eyes, creating a window to another America. Placing familiar images in unfamiliar juxtapositions, Ginks sheds light on many things, we, as Americans and more specifically, Virginians readily accept and seldom question. These seemingly indiscriminate pairings lead the viewer to sense that the artist perceives his adopted home as having multiple personalities which need to be reconciled. “I acutely feel the tension between the manicured, civilized face Virginia wishes to present and the threats at its edges; the wildness of nature, the shadow of history and an uncertain future,” says Ginks.