Barcus Slonina grew up in the Chicago area and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1993. She married Jim Slonina in 2007.
Career
Barcus Slonina's work has been exhibited at the Evanston Arts Center in Evanston, Illinois; the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin; Compton Verney Art Museum in Warwickshire, England; the Smart Museum of Art, The Peace Museum, The Contemporary Arts Workshop, and Artemisia Gallery in Chicago, Illinois; New York Mills Cultural Center in New York Mills, Minnesota; Atomic Todd Gallery in Las Vegas, Nevada as well as many other galleries and museums. In 2006, she opened Skin City Body Painting in Las Vegas, Nevada, which provides professional body paint, makeup, and hair styling to customers. The company specializes in models, entertainers, and acrobatic talent for promotions, events, conventions, and parties.
Television
Barcus Slonina, along with RuPaul, and Craig Tracy, serves as a judge on Skin Wars, a body painting reality competition hosted by Rebecca Romijn that began airing on GSN in August 2014. Contestants on the series perform challenges containing body painting each episode. At the end of each episode, one contestant is eliminated.
States of Dress Project
In 2005, Barcus Slonina started the "States of Dress" project, an ongoing series of interactive, site-specific dress sculptures with one created in each of the 50 states. The ongoing project largely incorporates materials indigenous to the respective state such as:
Illinois - "Red Dress" 1999. Dress made from 28 used dresses. 25' long and 18' wide at base. Northbrook, IL.
Minnesota - "Corn Dress" 2004. Welded steel frame and corn. 14' tall. New York Mills, MN.
