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James Horner (he/him) is a New York based visual artist. His figurative artwork reflects the lives of the LGBTQ community. Through visual storytelling, he attempts to help promote queer lifestyles and divert discrimination from his people. Revelations include queer icons and everyday folk.
Trying-on different mediums, Horner focuses on painting, but also explores drawing, printmaking, sculpture and most recently zines. In his revelations, figures are abstracted to the grotesque and overwhelmed by their environments expressing stressors of the world.
During Horner’s M.F.A. program at Lehman College (2011), he focused on abstract and grotesque figurative painting and won the Out Magazine Sleepwear Design Challenge that included characters from one of his works.
In 2013, he exhibited at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art with a group of HIV artists from the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC). Horner continued exhibiting with the collection at the museum in 2015, 2017, and 2019.
As his practice developed, he focused more on investigating queer lifestyles and issues. In 2019, he exhibited, “Village,” that questioned male/female personas in a policing gender show at the Amos Eno Gallery, Brooklyn, NY.
Horner’s boyfriend of 10 years, Chris, committed suicide in 2021. He then focused work around their relationship to help promote queer suicide prevention. LGBTQ youth are more than four times likely to attempt suicide than their peers (Johns et al., 2019; Johns et al., 2020). He began with sculpture at the Greenwich House Pottery, NYC, 2021, and then continued with large-scale paintings of the couples’ intimate lives (seen in the work samples provided). The paintings that enveloped the viewer were exhibited in an Open Studios event at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) residency, 2022.
He began collaborating with artists from SVA’s after residency course in 2022. Horner exhibited with the group in “Yonder Crush” (2023) at Satchel Projects, New York, NY. And then the cohort launched a public art show “Blink” (2023), starring projections of their artworks in a building’s windows in Chicago seen by about 1.2 million people. For his BLINK showing, he choose the paintings of his life with Chris to promote LGBTQ suicide awareness.
Horner regularly donates work to Housing Works, VisualAIDS, Bailey House, and other organizations that help people in need and live with AIDS.
Recent residencies include Uncool Artists, Brooklyn, NY and Readymade, DNA Artists Residency. And he just finished a program at the Bronx Museum where he created a zine and prints focused on queer icons: Liz Taylor, Marsha P. Johnson, and David Wojnarowicz.
Living in New York, James Horner is a queer chronicler who attempts to educate the public and divert discrimination from the LGBTQ tribe. Influenced by a father who was a psychiatrist, his tales reflect the environmental psychology of the queer community such as social settings and natural environments. His subjects include LGBTQ icons and everyday folk.
Horner focuses on painting, but also explores drawing, sculpture, and most recently zines. In his revelations, figures are abstracted to the grotesque and overwhelmed by their environments expressing their world’s stressors. He develops four paintings at a time for creative learnings and takes from photographs and real life.
Horner starts his works with a line drawing, usually of figures in some kind of background. The composition can be based on images from photographs or real life. Next based on the drawing, he adds details with paint, marker, mica chip, glass beads, and graphite and keeps laying down more mediums; erasing and building up surfaces, until the painting is finished.
During Horner’s M.F.A. program at Lehman College (2011), he focused on abstract and grotesque works. In 2013 he exhibited at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art with a group of HIV artists from the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC). Horner continued exhibiting with the group at the museum in 2015, 2017, and 2019.
As his practice developed, he focused more on investigating queer lifestyles and issues. In 2019, he exhibited, “Village,” that questioned male/female personas in a policing gender show at the Amos Eno Gallery, Brooklyn, NY.
In 2021, Horner’s boyfriend of 10 years, Chris, committed suicide. He then focused work around his relationship to help promote queer suicide prevention. LGBTQ youth are more than four times likely to attempt suicide than their peers (Johns et al., 2019; Johns et al., 2020). In 2022, he exhibited in an Open Studios at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) residency, 2022: “Sleepers,” “Glamorous Barfiles,” and James and Chris - A Gay Pride Parade" (seen in the work samples provided).
James Horner
235 Garth Road, Apt. A3B, Scarsdale, NY 10583
Contact: 646-764-2721 • jameshornerart@gmail.com
www.jameshornerart.com • Instagram: @jamesandthelovelies and #jameshornerart
Education
2023 School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, Fall/Spring Residency Alumni Network Courses
2021 – 2022 Greenwich House Pottery, New York, NY, Two Beginning Hand Building Courses
2013 – 2017 School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, CE Studio Art Coursework
2011 Lehman College, Bronx, NY, M.F.A., Painting
2004 – 2009 Parsons School of Design, New York, NY; Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY; School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, CE Studio Art Coursework
1990 Pace University, White Plains, NY, M.B.A., Marketing
1987 SUNY Albany, Albany, NY, B.A., Communications, Minors: Business and Art
Group Exhibitions/Events
2023
"BLINK" Projection Exhibit, Building on Corner of Grand/State
Streets, Chicago, IL
"Yonder Crush," Satchel Projects, New York, NY
2022 "SVA’s Artist Residency Programs Open Studios," School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
"GHP Artists Exhibition," Greenwich House Pottery, New
York, NY
2021 "Beach Ball Art Auction," Boys and Girls Club of Bellport, Bellport, NY
2019 "Art and AIDS: Allegria," Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York, NY
"CRIMINALIZE THIS! The Social Policing of Gender and the Criminalization
of Queerness," Amos Eno Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2018 "The Same River Twice," Lehman College, Bronx, NY
2017 "Art & AIDS: Soldiers of Survival," Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York, NY
"GMHC Gala Art Auction," Cipriani, New York, NY
2015 "Inspire, Collaborate, Create," Variety New York, NY
"Art and AIDS: Amore y Passion," Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York, NY
"Nova Illa," Dacia Gallery, New York, NY
2014 "Masquerade" (Solo Show), Gallery Aferro, Newark, NJ
"Lehman College Faculty/MFA Students Exhibition," Krasdale Foods Gallery, Bronx, NY
"The Housingworks' Design on a Dime," Metropolitan Pavilion, New York, NY
2013 "What They Were Thinking," Gallery Aferro, Newark, NJ
"Art and AIDS: Perceptions of Life," Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York, NY
2012 "Fall Open Studios and Community Conversations," Gallery Aferro, Newark, NJ
"Days of our Lives," (solo show) The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York, NY
2011 "Tylenol PM Awards Fashion Show - James Horner's Sleepwear Designs," New York, NY
2010 "The Wicked Twins: Fame and Notoriety," Paul Robeson Galleries, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ
Residencies
2022 School of Visual Arts Summer Residency Program, Fine Arts: Painting and Mixed Media, New York, NY
2015 Dacia Gallery, Winter Study of the Figure Residency, New York, NY
2012 – 2013 Gallery Aferro Studio Residency, Newark, NJ
Art Writing
2010 Bronx Art Guide, Contributing Writer (no longer published)
2009 – 2016 Examiner.com, Manhattan Fine Arts Examiner, (no longer published)
Publications
2012 “The Wicked Twins: Fame and Notoriety,” Catalogue, Paul Robeson Galleries, Rutgers University
2011 “The Beach Ball Art Auction Catalogue,” The Boys and Girls Club of the Bellport Area
“The Urban Situation,” Catalogue, Educational Alliance, New York, NY
“Housing Works Design on a Dime Auction Catalogue,” Housing Works
2009 “Exquisite Corpse: Paul Robeson Galleries 30th Anniversary,” Catalogue,
Paul Robeson Galleries, Rutgers - The State University of New Jersey
Press
2013 “In the Galleries: Art & AIDS: Perceptions of Life,” Advocate, December 17, 2013
“ART & AIDS: Perceptions of Life, An Exhibition of the Humanity, Spirit, and
Love of Artists Living with HIV & AIDS Dec. 19, 2013 – Jan. 5, 2014 Leslie-Lohman Museum,” The Journal 48, The Journal of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, Winter 2013
Leroux-Lindsey, Angela, “Perception as Muse In Anticipation of an "Upcoming, Art & AIDS, Exhibit, Participants Share Their Perspectives
About Creative Inspirations," A&U America’s AIDS Magazine, December 2013
2011 “Tylenol PM Lights Out Sleepwear Design Challenge Winner: James Horner,” Out Magazine, September 2011
“Tylenol PM Lights Out Sleepwear Design Challenge, Congratulations James Horner,” Out Magazine Website, June 2011
“Scene + Heard: Sleepwear Takes The Stage At Out’s Pride Party,” Next Magazine.com, June 27, 2011
2010 “Off the Wall Part 1: Thirty Performance Actions, John Baldessari’s I will never make boring art again,” Whitney Museum of American Art website, July 2010
Salerno, Dominic, “They See Differently,” Bronx Art Guide, June 2, 2010,
Figueroa, Xavier, “Lehman Opens its Studios,” Bronx Art Guide, June 2, 2010
2009 Feit, Tiehla, “Student Artists Portray Anxiety,” Lehman College's The Meridian, March 2, 2009
Experience
2010 Graduate Painting, Fall Semester, Teacher Assistant for Dannielle Tegeder, Lehman College, Bronx, NY
2010 Artist talk in conjunction with The Wicked Twins: Fame and Notoriety, Paul Robeson Galleries, Rutgers University – Newark, NJ
Awards
2011 Winner - OUT Magazine, Tylenol PM, Lights Out Sleepwear Design Challenge. Spread in Out Magazine and fashion Show with sleepwear designs.
Permanent Collections
Paul Robeson Galleries Rutgers University, Newark, NJ
Shah Alam Gallery, Malaysia