BIO & CV

James Oscar is a writer, art critic, curator of art and performance, and WaS graduate researcher in the sociology and anthropology of art at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique. His work resides at the intersection of experimental forms of art criticism, critical forms of community cultural engagement, innovative curatorial methods, and critical approaches in anthropological investigation studying the nexus between official governmental forms of cultural development and its rapports with sovereign forms of artists' practices, operating under the rubric of their own cultural spheres. He refined his craft by studying closely with and under the tutelage of Martiniquan poet Edouard Glissant at Cuny Grad Centre in NYC. This influence has profoundly shaped his approach. he collaborated closely with the African philosopher Ato Sekyi-Otu marking his initiation into a critical thought journey at the age of 19. during this period he served as a researcher, and critical thinker, undertaking the task of reevaluating the translation and interpretation of the work of Frantz Fanon for the foundational academic text - "Fanon's Dialectic of Experience" (Harvard, 1992)

With 25 years of experience in writing about contemporary art, cultural criticism, social-cultural urban histories, community advocacy/urban policy reform, and over 15 years of curatorial experience, James has played various roles at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts either as a curatorial consultant or in broader cultural consultations regarding the importance of new collections inspired by critical approaches to plural presence building. he contributed to the curatorial team for the exhibition "From Africa to the Americas: Face-to-Face Picasso, Past and Present" in 2018, holding diverse positions, including serving as a performance curator and providing advisory roles for multiple exhibitions and museum initiatives. As the inaugural Curator in Residence at the Fonderie Darling Contemporary Art Centre from 2022 to 2023, a residency titled “The New Region of the World”, dedicated to his mentor Édouard Glissant, he reimagined global perceptions of contemporary art, introducing innovative theoretical frameworks reshaping art histories, the present subject of his book in development & fully funded by the Canada council for the arts - "the new region of the world: new paradigms in contemporary and Canadian art". he has most recently worked doing research with the Portuguese pavilion at the 2024 venice biennale which has resulted in his text "imperial amphitheatres" set to appear in the official pavilion catalogue for the Venice Biennale. an ongoing project with the Portuguese pavilion -"the greenhouse" related to his interests in the nexus between environmental stewardship and contemporary art practices will continue in 2025.

His most recent texts from towards the end of 2023 into 2024 have been interviews with the choreographers Benoit la Chambre & Ricardo rubio, with the painters and curators clovis Devereux & c.p. Simonise, an interview & text with the jazz scholar winston smith, interview text with the derrida trained philosopher/multidisciplinary artist Jassem Hindi and upcoming texts on dana michel, Lara Kramer, photographer, Monica de Miranda, on paradigms of the creativity paradigm in the neoliberal era. upcoming curatorial projects in development are with Satch Hoyt, dias & redweig, ramata cissé, the image board collective, musée des Arts Libres des amériques et du Monde, and two international museum shows.

His recent curatorial endeavors include "illuminations" at Maison de la culture de montréal nord (February 2024), "Maison de la Culture Claude Léveillée: La Langage Secret de l’Univers (The Secret Language of the Universe)" with Clovis Desvarieux & CP Simonise, exhibited from January 20 to March 19, 2023, and his curating the Permanent Art Collection at Maison d’Haïti from February to December 2022. His 2022 exhibition collaborations with Ivorian artist Ramata Cissé across locations like the Cayman Islands, Paris, and Montreal led to her sculpture being considered for a national museum collection. his 2023 show led to his artists entering into prestigious collections and one major international institution. Furthermore, he served as a project curator at the Momenta Biennale in 2021.his latest curatorial project was a short-term research and curator in residence position at hangar Centre for Artistic Research In Lisbon (spring /summer 20240 regarding the image board project, resulting in his invitation by the Portuguese pavilion of the Venice Biennale to participate as an official contributor for the Venice Biennale.

AS A CURATOR,James serves as the curator at the Musée des Arts Libres des Amériques et du Monde (MALAM) in Montreal, housing one of the world's largest collections of Caribbean art. His latest exhibition, the inaugural MALAM exhibition, featured an opera built by himself as musical director and the composer Theo Abellard, the composition, "music for the world of tomorrow" played between this young prodigy pianist Theo Abellard alongside one of the largest presentations of the sculptures of Haitian metal sculptor Georges Liautaud (1899-1991) whose work had appeared at the historic Magiciens de la Terre show in 1989.

he sits on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Art Foundation, canada's oldest existing art foundation, working to establish a newly emerging Canadian Art Magazine.

His group, Montréal en Action, led the City of Montreal to conduct the first public consultation on racism in North America, during which he contributed his expertise in cultural policy gained at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique. This consultation resulted in the establishment of a new department within the heart of Montreal's municipal government, initiating changes across various institutions such as the Maisons de la Culture such as the program for diverse curators in their network.

His primary research area focuses on local regions where he has dedicated years of study, including Canada, and spans various diasporic locations—from HAITI TO Mexico to Brazil, to Africa itself. However, his main focus remains on the Americas WITH A FRAMEWORK DERIVING FROM THE GLOBAL SOUTH.

His current focus centers on examining artistic practice through the lens of critical anthropology of art, engaging in fieldwork regarding art practice, curating, and writing regarding both visual arts and performance. He explores how certain artists' practices intersect with innovative approaches to ecological stewardship, addressing social, political, and ecological aspects, as well as forms of cooperation, contemporary ritual, and ceremony. Informed by critical considerations of ecological stewardship theories, his emphasis on stewardship and art draws inspiration from eco-poetics, influenced by writers like Aimé and Suzanne Cesaire in their journal “Tropiques”. It is noteworthy that James, a student of Édouard Glissant, continues this lineage and school of thinking, with Glissant having studied under Césaire.

During his tenure as a researcher at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique and his extracurricular research for public and governmental consultations, he extensively and critically examined the intersections of corporate and governmental entities concerning the concept of "creativity." This involved in-depth fieldwork alongside visual and performance artists, unravelling the intricate ties between "creativity" and its implied appropriations under the auspices of governmental and corporate spheres. he ultimately began an in-depth analysis of the history of cultural policies on a global, national, and local scale and implications for marginalized citizens having a voice in the "official" and publicly funded acculturations of their cities.a significant aspect of his work involves critiquing possible forms of cooptation of the notion of "creativity" by governmental and corporate entities. through ongoing fieldwork with artists, he incorporates their concepts, language, and vocabularies to address their larger questions of cultural production and transmission.

James is a frequent global lecturer and adept moderator of panels at esteemed institutions like the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, The Phi Foundation for Contemporary Art, The Power Plant, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Art Gallery of Toronto, and La Clinic (Oaxaca) with his insights. His written contributions include notable works like "Rashid Johnson: Anxious Audience" (Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, 2021) and "Barkley L Hendricks's Eternal Sunshine of the Radiant Mind" (Relations: Diaspora and Painting, Hirmer Verlag University of Chicago Press, 2020), the intercessioners- the works of Catherine morin (Wishbone gallery: 2022w). With over 75 articles on contemporary art, featured in magazines like Canadian Art Magazine, he's explored artists like Theaster Gates, Omar Ba, Joan Jonas, Ragnar Kjartansson and Celeste Boursier-Mougenot, Jassem Hindi, Benoît Lachambre, Lara Kramer, Clara Furey, Marlene Monteiro Freitas, Dana Michel, Rajni Perera, Cornel West, Hofesh Schechter, Miles Greenberg, and others. He recently delved into the artistry of Mónica de Miranda and her team representing the Portuguese Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale.

He has collaborated on projects with Cornel West, the McCord Museum, The Canadian Museums Association, providing advisory roles to influential entities such as the City of Montreal's cultural service, CBC, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, The Canadian Museums Association, Canadian centre for architecture, and giving lectures at entities like the art gallery of Ontario museum among other pivotal cultural institutions across Canada. part of his present interest is to connect small to medium-scale independent art spaces globally from a contemporary space in Oaxaca, la Clinica to the hangar in Lisbon or savvy contemporary in Berlin.

James has ventured into television work with CBC (SRI) television as director of research for the series Afro-Canada and is now the writer and showrunner of an upcoming series in 2024/2025

EDUCATION

2018-2022 Masters in Urban Studies M.Sc National Institute for Scientific Research (INRS) Research Associate and Masters in Sociology of Art Recipient of Bourse d’Excellence & Bourse
de spécialization. Masters in Science. M.Sc

2006-2007 Courses in Master of Arts in Creative and Professional Writing for Cinema (auditor, took out of degree courses) University of Southern California (Los Angeles) Recipient of scholarship the Academy of Arts and Science Scholarship. Course work.

1996-1999 Various seminars on 20th-century Francophone literature and thought (auditor) CUNY, Grad Center (New York)

1989-1992 Bachelor of Arts (double major in Political Science/Latin American and Caribbean Studies in Art and Society) York University (Toronto)

CURATORIAL

2023 - Present Co-Director and Director of the Collection of Art/Curator of Exhibitions- Jara Michel Collection, Montreal, Canada

2024 Illuminations: The Secret Language of the Universe Reboot: Clovis-Alexandre Desvarieux & CP Simonise Maison de la Culture Montréal Nord, Montreal, Canada (11 JAN - 24 FEB)

2023 Curator Pop Montréal Music Festival– Prophetic Resonance – Cornel West Event, Montreal Canada

2023 Curator - Illuminations: The Secret Language of the Universe featuring painters Clovis-Alexandre Desvarieux & CP Simonise. Maison de la Culture Claude Léveillée, Montreal, Canada

2022 First Curator in Residence, Fonderie Darling, Montreal, Canada

2022 Performance Curator - "Wondane" - A multidisciplinary performance by Ramata Cissé, Fonderie Darling, Montreal, Canada

2022 Performance Curator - "Anatomy" - A multidisciplinary performance by Ramata Cissé, 24 Beaubourg Gallery, Paris, France

2022 Curator: United In Flames Paintings, drawings, and monochromes by Oski Awoyo (Olivier Joseph Vilaire). Fauna, Montreal, Canada

2022 Brightness Always Above the Burnt Sun: A dialogue with young Haitian painters Clovis-Alexandre Desvarieux, CP Simonise & Oski Awoyo, Maison de la Culture Janine Sutto, Montreal, Canada

2022 Dialogue between Curators in Residence with Mojeanne Behzadi, Fonderie Darling, Montreal, Canada

2022 Curatorial Dialogue/ Documentation/ Dramaturgy Festival Transamèriques “Them Voices” indoor performance/multidisciplinary art piece with Lara Kramer, Montreal Espace Libre Theatre, Montreal, Canada

2022 Curator OF Performances “Adam Pendleton- These Things We’ve Done Together”, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal/Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Canada

2022 Curator’s Talk/ Community Dialogue - Curatorial Residency – La Sombra de Terra Nullus (The Shadow of Terra Nullius): Canadian Colonial imaginaries as actual life. Institutions; dispositifs; tautologies; ambiguities, La Clinica, Oaxaca Mexico

2022 Curatorial Dialogue as Curator in Residence Fonderie Darling Contemporary Art Centre - with Artist /Curator Rame Cuen Curatorial Residency - (Joint presentation venture established by James Oscar between two institutions), La Clinica, Oaxaca Mexico

2022 Curator of Permanent Collection – Maison d’Haïti, Montreal, Canada

2022 Dialogue with Chantal Pontbriand, Curator in Residence Fonderie Darling, Montreal, Canada

2022 Curator in Residence, Inaugural Lecture: Jan- Dec. 2022, Fonderie Darling, Montreal, Canada

2022 Consultant for the City of Montréal / Ville de Montréal with Yvon Fillion – Director of the Service de la Culture/ (Culture Département) de Ville de Montréal, Montréal, Canada

2022 Consultant for City of Montréal / Ville de Montréal -September 2021 Consultancy with director Bochra Manaï of City’ department - Bureau de la commissaire à la lutte au racisme et aux discriminations, Montréal, Canada

2021 Curatorial Advisor: Advisory Committee for Black Montreal History Exhibition McCord Museum for visual arts show about the history of the Black Community in Montreal, Montreal, Canada

2021 Curatorial Project “Past/amongst/ bones and seed”, Momenta Biennale de l’Image, Montreal, Canada

2021 Curated Pedagogical EngagEment, Festival Transamèriques (FTA) Musée d’Art Contemporain Museum of Contemporary Art, Montreal, Canada

2020 Curated Pedagogical Engagement Residency and Performance Talk: Lara Kramer’s “Eating Bones and Licking Bread” Dancemakers, Toronto

2019 Black Curators Forum Powerplant Gallery and Art Toronto International Studio, Toronto, Canada

2019 Curator of “Bad Light” Exhibition Beaver Sheppard Montreal, Canada

2018 Curatorial Advisor for Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: From Africa to the Americas: Face-to-Face Picasso, Past and Present. Montreal, Canada

2018 - 2019 Curatorial Content Advisor- Visual Curatorial Work: Programming and Diversity Consultant CBC TV Quebec (Radio Canada), Montreal, Canada

2015 Curator Festival of New Cinema: “Holding Ghosts and Shooting at the Moon: A Retrospective of the Documentaries of Vincent Moon - Festival of New Cinema (Festival du nouveau cinéma) (FNC), Montréal, Canada

LECTURES / PANELS / CONFERENCES

2023 Moderator/ Lecturer Pop Montréal Music Festival– Prophetic Resonance – Dialogue on one with Philosopher Cornel West

2022 “Les conservateurs noirs et la diaspora africaine- Black Curators and the African Diaspora" : Dismantling Foundations to Build A Better Tomorrow, CANADIAN MUSEUMS ASSOCIATION

2022 Art Gallery of Ontario - Art in the Spotlight - Panelist: Visual artist Esery Mondesir for a conversation with writer and art critic James Oscar and scholar Vermonja Alston This program is held in conjunction with the exhibition Esery Mondesir: We Have Found Each Other

2022 Dialogue regarding the work of Haitian artist, Afro-descendant cultural production, and the work of black Martinican writer Edouard Glissant. A dialogue regarding experimenting with narratives in the Afro-descendant community.

2021 Institute of Australian Geographers & New Zealand Geographical Society Combined Conference July 8 2021 - “Between Living Landscapes and Simulated Landscapes: TranSgressions in Urban Experimental Art Practices”

2021 Resisting Systemic Racism in Cultural Spheres, Montréal en Action Zoom Conference March 31, 2021, Montréal en Action Action Group

2021 " THIS SEAT IS TAKEN " The Absence of Black Leadership Roles in Performing Arts Institutions -Panel Conversation with Dori Tunstall Dean of Design Ocad & Chanel Ward Assistant Dean of Diversity NYU: Toronto Black Film Festival

2020 Relations: Diaspora -Curator/ Moderator of Special Panel on Diasporic Painting Practices Phi Foundation for Contemporary Art

2020 An Art Historical Visual History of Stares: The Stares of Anxious Audiences, of Black Lives, of Raw Lives, and the Regards of the Radiant by James Oscar At The Power Plant Toronto

2020 A Post-performance Conversation about Lara Kramer's "Eating bones and Licking bread”, Dancemakers, Toronto, Canada

2019 Beyond the Black Box, September 26, 2019 – Creator and moderator of the panel regarding experimental black performance featuring Afropunk founder James Spooner – Pop Montreal International Music Festival

2019 Montreal Underground Pop Montréal: Where has the Scene Gone? Lecture and Conference Organizer for Fernand-Dumont Chair in Urban Studies& Culture at INRS (National Institute for Scientific Research UQAM ) Conference on “underground cultures” with Afro-electronic

2019 Beyond Recognition& Placing Ourselves in History: From Place-holding to Place-making, Lecture at Panel Discussion Black Artists: Cultural Rights and Recognition- at Maison d’Afrique (Africa House)

2019 Topographies of the Future/Present: Mapping Our Lives in Adversarial Contexts-

2019 Lecture at Round Table: “Art and Racism” at Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

2018 The Good, The Bad, The Country: Constructing Contemporary Subjects, Stereotypes, Rupturing Community, and Initial Notes on the "Good”(Lecture on Robert Lepage and “Slav”) - Lecture at Panel Discussion Cause or Consequence: Cultural Appropriation or Cultural Hegemony, Teesri Duniya Theatre Company (Multicultural theatre company)

2018 The Pleasures of Appropriation and Picasso Cradled in a Black Paris: The Concept of the “Interior Landscape” - Official international Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Lecture Series in relationship to Picasso exhibition: “From Africa to the Americas: Face-to-face Picasso, Past and Present.”

2018 Radical Black Imaginaries and Poetics from 1922- 1947: From Negritude’s Affirmation of Cultural Identity to the Poetics of Tropiques - Official Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Lectures for docents and public in relationship to Picasso exhibition: “From Africa to the Americas: Face-to-face Picasso, Past and Present”

2018 Academic Social Scientific International Conference- May 1968: 50 Years On

2018 At the University of Quebec at Montreal: “Not Remembering the Undercommons: The May 1968 Effect and the Concept of ‘European Memory’ “

2018 Academic Social Scientific Conference – Arts, Culture, Society, Views on Contemporary Practices: National Institute for Scientific Research (INRS UQAM): The Production of the Local, Authenticity, and the “Creative Core" in Montreal's African Underground”

2018 Office de Consultation Publique de Montréal (Office for Public Consultation of the City of Montreal) My action group Montréal en Action led a campaign to garner 22 000 signatures granting the city to hold a Public Consultation on Racism, the first such large-scale public consultation on racism in North America.

With 25 years of experience in writing about contemporary art, cultural criticism, social-cultural urban histories, community advocacy/urban policy reform, and over 15 years of curatorial experience, James has played various roles at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. he contributed to the curatorial team for the exhibition "From Africa to the Americas: Face-to-Face Picasso, Past and Present" in 2018, holding diverse positions like serving as a performance curator and providing advisory roles for multiple exhibitions. As the inaugural Curator in Residence at the Fonderie Darling Contemporary Art Centre from 2022 to 2023, a residency titled “The New Region of the World”, dedicated to his mentor Édouard Glissant, reimagining global perceptions of contemporary art, introducing innovative theoretical frameworks reshaping art histories. His recent curatorial endeavors include "illuminations" at Maison de la culture de montréal nord (February 2024), "Maison de la Culture Claude Léveillée: La Langage Secret de l’Univers (The Secret Language of the Universe)" with Clovis Desvarieux & CP Simonise, exhibited from January 20 to March 19, 2023, and curating the Permanent Art Collection at Maison d’Haïti from February to December 2022. His 2022 exhibition collaborations with Ivorian artist Ramata Cissé across locations like the Cayman Islands, Paris, and Montreal led to her sculpture being considered for a national museum collection. Furthermore, he served as a project curator at the Momenta Biennale in 2021.

AS A CURATOR,James serves as the founder and chief curator at the Musée des Arts Libres des Amériques et du Monde (MALAM) in Montreal, housing one of the world's largest collections of Caribbean art. His latest exhibition, the inaugural MALAM exhibition, featured a musical dialogue between young prodigy pianist Theo Abelard and the sculptures of Haitian metal sculptor Georges Liautaud (1899-1991).Recently appointed to the Board of Directors of the Canadian Art Foundation and the newly emerging Canadian Art Magazine and as an editor at the Newest Magazine, Canada’s innovative cultural art review.

As a public intellectual, working alongside various groups within the Black community, he has been instrumental in implementing changes at some of Canada's prestigious institutions. These include the CBC (QUEBEC), the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Canadian Art Foundation (Canadian Art magazine), among others, as well as over 20 other institutions where he has led DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) trainings. His group, Montréal en Action, led the City of Montreal to conduct the first public consultation on racism in North America, during which he contributed his expertise in cultural policy gained at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique. This consultation resulted in the establishment of a new department within the heart of Montreal's municipal government, initiating changes across various institutions such as the Maisons de la Culture.

During his tenure as a researcher at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique and his extracurricular research for public and governmental consultations, he extensively and critically examined the intersections of corporate and governmental entities concerning the concept of "creativity." This involved in-depth fieldwork alongside visual and performance artists, unraveling the intricate ties between "creativity" and its implied appropriations under the auspices of governmental and corporate spheres. he ultimately began an in-depth analysis of the history of cultural policies on a global, national, and local scale and implications for marginalized citizens having a voice in the "official" and publicly funded acculturations of their cities.a significant aspect of his work involves critiquing possible forms of cooptation of the notion of "creativity" by governmental and corporate entities. through ongoing fieldwork with artists, he incorporates their concepts, language, and vocabularies to address their larger questions of cultural production and transmission.