PNCA welcomes Jim Drain as part of the 2015-2016 MFA in Visual Studies visiting artist lecture series.

In vigorously colorful mixed-media works, Miami-based artist Jim Drain uses saturated psychedelic hues and patterns in a combination of formal exploration, art history, and popular culture. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Drain attended the Rhode Island School of Design in the late 1990s, where he became involved with an art collective that inspired his extensive mixing of mediums. Following school, Drain introduced his love for discarded materials to a new skill—knitting—and is now best known for his stuffed and sewn sculptures that incorporate fabric scraps with machine knit-patterns. In general, Drain’s works are a melange of many parts; fun-house mirrors, plastic easter eggs, found items, and printed ephemera bearing referential imagery.

Drain was a member of Forcefield, a collective of artists and musicians who were later featured in the 2002 Whitney Biennial. Drain has had recent solo exhibitions at the University of Florida; Locust Projects, Miami; and the Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin. He has participated in group exhibitions at the Geffen Contemporary, MOCA, Los Angeles; the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia; Serpentine Gallery, London; Depart Foundation, Rome; the 7th Bienniale d’Art Contemporain de Lyon. His work is in the permanent collection of MoMA. One of two recipients of the 2005 Bâloise Prize, Drain is represented by Greene Naftali Gallery in New York. He just recently had a solo exhibition in Los Angeles at Prism Gallery. He currently lives and works in Miami.