John Holsinger was born in 1988 in the Philippines, and grew up overseas in Okinawa, Japan. His fine art studies formally began in 2013 at Portland State University where he shifted his focus from 2D and 3D digital media to oil painting. John's 2016-2017 BFA thesis work explored the intersections of aporia and the sublime through a form of painterly realism, depicting mundane objects and passing moments in a manner which verged upon the surreal and conveyed a sense of absence and contemplation.
In 2018, John entered the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, receiving his Master's in contemporary painting in the spring of 2020. His Master's thesis oil paintings of interiors and local architecture were quixotic reflections on representation and politics. These seemingly prosaic paintings were both an embodied response to and a refutation of an expanded interpretation of the "Neoliberal Aesthetic" as theorized by Walter Benn Michaels.
John's work has been described by historians and professors as unusual, quiet, and dispassionate, and has also been compared to the work of Luc Tuymans, Edward Hopper, Edwin Dickinson, Jeff Walls, and Avigdor Arikha.
When he isn't painting or out eating tacos, he can usually be found in his apartment, playing, recording, and producing a wide array of oddball, pop-inflected rock music. Currently, John lives in Philadelphia and works out of his residence in Callowhill, PA.
ARTIST STATEMENT 📎
