Pratt Institute

Personal URL

Education

A.A., State University of New York Farmingda; Commercial Art
B.F.A., M.S., Pratt Institute; Illustration
M.F.A., New York Academy of Art; Painting

Biography

im Hoston was born in Freeport, Long Island and showed artistic talent as a youth. He is a graduate of S.U.N.Y. @ Farmingdale, Pratt Institute, and the New York Academy of Art respectively. While at the Academy, he was an Andy Warhol scholarship recipient both years that he attended. A few of the noted professors that Jim studied with are Ted Schmidt, Walter Erlebacher, Xavier DeCallaty, and realist painter Jack Beal.

Jim’s diploma painting “Universal Injustice” was received with rave reviews and he was featured in American Artist magazine for new emerging artist. In the same year Jim started working full-time at Marvel Comics in the famous “Bullpen”. During this time he helped put together such comics as X-men, Spiderman, Fantastic Four, The Avengers and many more. He painted comic covers and colored several books monthly as well as the Marvel Annual Reports (1993-1995). Jim has also illustrated for Scholastic, McElderry books, McGraw Hill Publishing, Macmillan Publishing, Precedence Entertainment, Publications Ltd., Uniworld Group, Gray Advertising, the American Medical Association, the Sands Casino, and Sony Music to list a few.

In 1996, he began assisting the world-renowned artist Jeff Koons on his recent “Celebration” series of paintings. These new paintings were shown in the Venice Biennial, the Guggenheim museums in New York and Bilbao, Spain, as well as private collections.

During the years from 1998 to the summer of 2000 Jim had been painting murals with Evergreene Painting Studios in New York City. Several projects he assisted on were the new Venetian Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas, Saks Fifth Avenue (Chicago), the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Tennessee, the Flynn Theater in Vermont, the Allen County Courthouse in Indiana, as well as other venues throughout the United States. In 2007 -2008 Jim participated in completing paintings for the Palazzo Casino and Hotel in Las Vega, installed the ceiling design for the Music Hall in Portsmouth, NH, the Empire State Building lobby restoration designs and lead a team of artist to help restore the sky region for the Gettysburg Cyclorama painting by French artist, Paul Dominique Philippoteaux, completed in 1882. Most recently he installed and in-painted murals at the Atlantis Hotel in Dubai, Saudi Arabia. He also teaches at Pratt Institute in the Illustration department and portrait painting at the New York Academy of Art during these earlier years. In the year 2000 his work was included in the Classicism Now exhibition at the Hirschl & Adler Modern Gallery in Manhattan, the Society of Illustrators Gallery of N.Y., the Rock Foundation Gallery in NC and the Atlantic City Museum Gallery in NJ. In the April/May issue of International Artist Magazine Jim’s work was show in the Master Painting Section for the United States and in 2001 he received a full-page article on is work in the European edition of Arte’ magazine from Milan, Italy.

In June of 2002, Jim was included in the well-received Black Romantic Exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem and in September had a Solo Exhibition in Newton, MA. In 2003 he has exhibited in Beverly Hills, CA, East Hampton, NY, The African American Museum in Hempstead, NY, and the Salmagundi Club in Manhattan for two different juried exhibitions respectively. In 2005, Jim illustrated the Children’s book titled Shop Talk, for Scholastic, Inc., and in 2006 an early reader picture book titled John Henry. His work is included the “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby” traveling exhibition starting out also at the Museum of American Illustration.

Currently he is a full-time Associate Professor at the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University and maintains a studio with his wife in Brooklyn, N.Y.