Born and raised in west Michigan and relocating to Chicago at age 19, I spent seven years at the Chicago Tribune before I began making and exhibiting art in 2005, occasionally writing as well for publications of varying repute. I am self-taught. I am not a professional ventriloquist, nor am I a football player or an Australian DJ.
Below: a version of me as rendered by Ryan Scheidt from some years ago.
In the time that I’ve been showing art, my work has been featured on the National Geographic website and as a season catalog cover for Orange Tree Theater in London. I’ve shown at Zhou Brothers Art Center, with Co-Prosperity Sphere, Around the Coyote, Aldo Castillo and Gruen Gallery (under the auspices of The Heartland Alliance) all in Chicago, Schaller + Jaquish Projects New York, and in DC, Brooklyn, Atlanta, and Boston with The Sketchbook Project.
I’ve written a cover story for the Chicago Reader, several dozen reviews/features for NewCity, features for badatsports.com, served as writer-in-residence for Art21 Magazine (PBS) and briefly as “foreign correspondent” (heavy quotes) for Saatchi Magazine Online, and have written for and edited several issues of the NY-based (formerly of LA by way of New Orleans) magazine Art Voices. I’ve interviewed interesting humans such as Caveh Zahedi, Scott Prendergast, Ricky Jay and Lawrence Weschler for various publications physical and digital, written an introduction for Chris Silva’s first retrospective book, and provided copy on over a hundred artists for the new Eaton Center art collection in Cleveland, in collaboration with Linda Warren Projects, which wasn’t awful.
I occasionally engage in live storytelling by way of PechaKucha and CHIRP Radio, at Martyrs’ in Chicago, and recently spoke at NEIU to some moderately engaged students. I enjoy ice cream, singing in the shower, and taking long walks in cities to find dives with pool tables.
Contact me: notjackkerouac@yahoo.com 773)704-7149 @damien.james.art
Some places I’ve been seen:
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Awake! @ Ann Arbor Art Center – Ann Arbor, MI
Sovereignty & Liberation @ Gallery 110 – Seattle, WA
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Black Artists Matter – as curator @ Studio 6 – Chicago, IL
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16 Years Drawing @ Studio 6 – Chicago, IL
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Comfort & Joy @ The Foundry Arts Center – St Charles, MO
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Comfort & Joy @ The Foundry Arts Center – St Charles, MO
Artist of the month @ You Are Beautiful – Chicago, IL
Something Wicked @ Side Street Studio – Elgin, IL
Volume 51 of PechaKucha @ Martyrs’ – Chicago, IL
Show Your Paper @ Woman Made Gallery – Chicago, IL
Group show @ Rockwell Artists Collective – Chicago, IL
Group show @ Second Story Studios – Chicago, IL
Refreshing Feminism @ Woman Made Gallery – Chicago, IL
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Reinvention II @ ARC Gallery – Chicago, IL
Textuality @ Manifest Gallery – Cincinnati, OH
Cones and Rods @ Whitdel Arts – Detroit, MI
CHIRP Radio’s First Time Storytelling series @ Martyrs’ – Chicago, IL
5th Annual DRAWN Exhibition @ Manifest Gallery – Cincinnati, OH
Not Just Drawing – A Line with Intent @ ARC Gallery – Chicago, IL
Telephone Show @ AVA Gallery – Chattanooga, TN
Volume 45 of PechaKucha @ Martyrs’ – Chicago, IL
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12×12 @ Bucktown Gallery – Chicago, IL
Tattoo: Ink, Art, & Object @ Columbia College Library – Chicago, IL
Insanity @ Jackson Junge Gallery – Chicago, IL
In the occult bookstore on Bryn Mawr just west of Broadway, buying a candle.
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Change @ Zhou B Art Center – Chicago, IL
At Reckless Records, browsing the miniscule trip-hop section.
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Pitchfork Music Festival sharing these in the Artist Menagerie.
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I Can Arrange That @ Walnut Ink Gallery, curated by Chris Silva – Michigan City, IN
Drawings from Jonathan Lethem’s The Collector @ Brainforest Gallery – Chicago, IL
Waking down the sidewalk, looking cool.
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Coyote @ the Flat Iron Building – Chicago, IL
Solo show @ Human Thread Gallery – Chicago, IL
Heartland Alliance Art of Human Rights @ Gruen Gallery – Chicago, IL
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Morning Glory Studios Anamnesis – Chicago, IL
Deadline Projects Neither Here Nor There @ Happy Dog Gallery – Chicago, IL
INFO XPO/Version 10 via Co-Prosperity Sphere – Chicago, IL
The Art of Human Rights @ River East Art Center – Chicago, IL
The Sketchbook Project Library – Brooklyn, NY
The American Dream @ Schaller + Jaquish Projects – NYC, NY
In Shawn’s bathroom that one night, with crutches.
Summer group exhibition @ Vegan Gallery – Chicago, IL
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Around the Coyote fall festival – Wicker Park – Chicago, IL
Deadline Projects Hands On @ Happy Dog Gallery – Chicago, IL
The American Dream @ Schaller + Jaquish Projects – NYC, NY
Frasca Memorial Works on Paper @ Around the Coyote Gallery – Chicago, IL
Deadline Projects @ Aldo Castillo Gallery – Chicago, IL
Barbara & Barbara Gallery – Chicago, IL
smART Show @ the Flat Iron Building – Chicago, IL
The Sketchbook Project – Brooklyn, D.C., Atlanta, Philadelphia, Boston, etc.
Having breakfast at Alexander’s diner.
Summer group exhibition @ Vegan Gallery – Chicago, IL
National Self Portrait Exhibit @ 33 Collective Gallery – Chicago, IL
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Chicago Art Collectives Show @ Parts & Labor – Chicago, IL
Around the Coyote fall festival @ Plumbers Hall – Chicago, IL
Infidel Group Solstice Exhibit @ Heart of Gold – Chicago, IL
Around the Coyote spring festival @ Riverwalk Gallery – Chicago, IL
Around the Coyote Select @ the Flat Iron Building – Chicago, IL
Solo show @ Unicorn Cafe – Evanston, IL
Deadline Projects @ Happy Dog Gallery – Chicago, IL
Taking a nap in the bushes.
National Self Portrait Exhibit @ 33 Collective Gallery – Chicago, IL
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Around the Coyote fall festival @ Preferred Lofts – Chicago, IL
National Self-Portrait Exhibit @ 33 Collective Gallery – Chicago, IL
Around the Coyote winter festival @ Preferred Lofts – Chicago, IL
Nowhere in particular, really.
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Multiples & Miniatures @ Around the Coyote Gallery – Chicago, IL
Around the Coyote winter festival @ the Flat Iron Building – Chicago, IL
Chicago Art & Antique Market @ Plumbers Hall – Chicago, IL
Around the Coyote fall festival @ Preferred Lofts – Chicago, IL
Expansion of You Are Beautiful mural on State Street – Chicago, IL
T Gallery – Seattle, WA
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Around the Coyote fall festival @ Lubinski Building – Chicago, IL
At Michigan and Wacker walking south toward the Cultural Center.
Private collections:
Dian Sourelis, Chicago
Lawrence Weschler, New York
Heather Hancock, Chicago
As an unlikely (and fraudulent) talking head:
EMPAC in Troy, New York, with Ryan and Trevor Oakes and Michael Benson
Below: a version of me as rendered by Gabriel Mejia from some years ago.
D A M I E N J A M E S 