Bio | John Holsinger

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 📎

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Published in the Woodmere Museum’s 78th juried exhibition catalog, Second Nature: Poetics of Re-presentation.
PAFA MFA Artistic Excellence Scholarship.
Portland State University President's and Dean's List–Summa Cum Laude graduate.
Portland State University multiple art scholarship recipient, including the Harry and Karen Groth Scholarship, Goldie Chan Scholarship, and Blick Merit Scholarship.
Published in the December 2015 issue of the PSU Pathos literary and art magazine.
Published in East Pacific Sun Art Magazine in 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2006.

EXHIBITIONS & CONSIGNMENTS

2022 – Group Show – “158th Annual Exhibition of Small Oil Paintings” — The Philadelphia Sketch Club, Philly, PA — May 9th
2020 - Consignment – PAFA’s Museum store – PAFA, Philly, PA — October 7th
2020 - Group Show – PAFA’S 119th Annual Student Exhibition – Anne Bryan Gallery, PAFA, Philly, PA — Sept 11th
2019 - Group Show - "Daydream" - Gallery 9, PAFA, Philly, PA — November 8th
2019 - Group Auction - "Circle of Care" - PAFA, Philly, PA — October 20th
2019 - Group Show - "Secret Haunts" - PAFA Lobby, Philly, PA — October 4th
2019 - Group Show - "Salon des Refusés" - PAFA, Philly, PA — August 27th
2019 - Group Show - "A Good Habit Formed" - Anne Bryan Gallery, PAFA, Philly, PA — August 13th
2019 - Group Show - "Second Nature: The Poetics of Re-presentation" - Woodmere Museum, Philly, PA — Jun 1st
2017 - Group Show - "Everything Must Go" - Erickson Gallery, Portland, OR — Dec 7th
2017 - Group Show - "We___." - Littman Gallery, Portland, OR - Jun 15th
2017 - Group Show - "EMERGING PSU / EMERGING PDX" - Erickson Gallery, Portland, OR — Apr 6th
2016 - Roadside display - "Looking Ritual" - Sugar Cube, PSU, Portland, OR — Oct 24th
2016 - Group Show - "Inaugural Old Town Biennial / New Portland Painting "- Erickson Gallery, Portland, OR — Aug 4th