JAMES HOSKING

I am a Chicago-based photographer, filmmaker, and visual artist. I’m a 2024 MacDowell Fellow in visual arts. My work has screened internationally and appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Mother Jones, The Economist, The Atlantic, WIRED, The Baffler, and many other publications.

I developed a multimedia project examining identity, aging, and labor among veteran drag performers in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood entitled Beautiful By Night. It included a documentary that I directed, produced, and edited. I had a multi-year collaboration with the Tenderloin Museum in San Francisco that included screenings, public programming, and a solo photo exhibit of this work. The project was included in the 2020 group show Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America? at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. It was the focus of a solo exhibition at the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities gallery in 2022.

I was a 2022-2023 HATCH resident at the Chicago Artists Coalition. HATCH is a juried program that offers the opportunity to develop new work and produce collaborative exhibitions. My two-person show was on view in 2023. It was supported by an Individual Artist Support grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. I presented a new series of collages made from LGBTQ+ archival material and inspired by the text of found personals. In the Chicago Reader, critic Annette LePique wrote: “Hosking’s work is an act of mediumship; it is a way for the past and present to meet and for the desires and lived experiences of those often denied the light to feel the glow of day once more.”

I was also recently a 2022-2023 CPS Lives artist. CPS Lives is a nonprofit that pairs artists with public schools. I photographed LGBTQ+ members of a high school’s Pride Club. The work was shown at Chicago’s Jude and Heaven galleries.

I’m the recipient of a 2023 Individual Artists Program grant from Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE). The grant will support the ongoing development of my archival LGBTQ+ collage series, The Personals. Pieces from the series were selected for Once: 2023 Emerging Artists Exhibit at the Cleve Carney Museum of Art. Other selections from the series are currently on view in Art from the Archives at Gerber/Hart Library & Archives in Chicago until April 15, 2024. I will be developing this work during my upcoming 2024 MacDowell Fellowship in visual arts.

I’m currently the Art Director of the Chicago Reader.

Solo Exhibitions
Tenderloin Museum
University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities Gallery

Two Person Exhibitions
Chicago Artists Coalition

Group Exhibitions
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Chicago Artists Coalition
Jude Gallery
Cleve Carney Museum of Art
Gerber/Hart Archives
Koehnline Museum
East Window Gallery (Nov 2023)
Heaven Gallery (Nov 2023)

Awards and Grants
Chicago DCASE Individual Artists Program grant
Illinois Arts Council Individual Artist Support grant
Magenta Foundation's Flash Forward
Vimeo Staff Pick
San Francisco Neighborhood Arts Collaborative grant
Endeavor Foundation grant
Economic Hardship Reporting Project
Platinum Award, Spotlight Documentary Awards

Artist Residencies
2024 MacDowell Fellowship, visual arts
Chicago Artists Coalition’s HATCH Program (2022 - 2023)
CPS Lives (2022 - 2023)
University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities

Commissioning Fellowship
University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities

Screenings
Boston LGBT Film Festival
Atlanta Documentary Film Fest
Frameline
United Nations Association Film Festival
National Conference for Ageing (UK)
Transfluential Film Festival
American Psychological Association Film Festival
Institute on Aging
Tenderloin Museum
University of Michigan
Leather Archives & Museum