Cole M. James

• MFA Claremont Graduate University in Painting & Digital Media
• Bachelor of Arts, California State University at San Bernardino

Cole M James is an interdisciplinary artist and educator whose work spans digital media, installation, social practice, curation, and visual storytelling. Rooted in diasporic memory, identity, and spiritual abstraction, zhir’s art practice engages both digital production and the analog collecting of lived experiences, often centering collaborative engagement and community-based arts initiatives.  

Zi holds an MFA in Installation & Digital Media from Claremont Graduate University and a BA in Painting from California State University, San Bernardino. James has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Alfred B. Friedman Grant, Walker Parker Artist Fellowship, and Mignon Schweitzer Award, and served as the 2019–20 Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation Artist in Residence. Zhir’s work has been exhibited in New York, Miami, Korea, and throughout Los Angeles, including Holding Half the Sky at Roberts Projects (curated by Jill Moniz and Betye Saar) and Wayward, a two-person exhibition curated by LA Times critic David Pagel.

James is a community collaborator, having worked with organizations such as Justice LA, artworxLA, Amnesty International, Liberated Arts Collective, Los Angeles Nomadic Division, Project 51, the Hammer Museum, LACMA, the California African American Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, and Michelada Think Tank. Through teaching, public art projects, and international workshops, James fosters inclusive spaces that support radical imagination, critical thought, and cross-cultural connection.