2025 ILLUMINATIONS GRANT FINALIST
josiah jamison
Image courtesy of the artist.
Josiah Jamison is a Black trans-femme painter, writer, and interdisciplinary artist based in Columbus, Ohio. Their work explores identity, survival, and transformation—centering Black and queer bodies through richly rendered figuration, poetic language, and installation. Jamison creates spaces for reflection, care, and resistance, serving as a kind of community counselor through art. A curator and organizer, they engage communities through exhibitions, workshops, and public programming rooted in kinship and accessibility. Drawn to spiritual and bodily frameworks, their practice builds living archives grounded in Black feminist thought, psychoanalytic theory, trauma studies, and trans femme histories of becoming. They hold an MFA from The Ohio State University and have exhibited at Urban Arts Space, and Hopkins Hall Gallery, among others.
show yourself, i’m dying to meet you (2023)
against the wall (2024)
do í taste differently than how you expected? (2023)
Installation view: You Won’t Be Alone, If I’m Here (2025)
Installation view of the Reading Nook