EDUCATION
- 1990 The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, MFA, Painting
- 1989 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
- 1985 University of Chicago, AB, Biology
AWARDS
- 2002 Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant Program Award Recipient, New York, NY
Fleishhacker Foundation Eureka Fellowship, San Francisco, CA
Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant, New York, NY Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art (SECA) Award, San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
- 2001 Art Council Grant, San Francisco, CA
- 1993 Outstanding Ford Foundation Fellow, New York, NY
- 1988-1990 School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Trustees Fellowship, Chicago, IL
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
- 2010 John Bankston: New Work, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, CA
James Harris Gallery, Seattle, WA
John Bankston: Abstracticator, Beta Pictoris Gallery, Birmingham, AL
- 2009 John Bankston:The Fabulist's Colored Life, Jack Shaiman Gallery, New York, NY
John Bankston: Imaginary Friends, Walter Maciel Gallery, Culver City, CA
John Bankston: Jack Drake Visiting Artist, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL
Drawings and works on paper, Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento, CA
- 2007 Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY
- 2006 John Bankston: Locating Desire, de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA
John Bankston: A place in the woods, Vacio 9, Madrid, Spain
- 2005 Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, CA
- 2004 Marella Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy
- 2003 John Bankston: Wild West, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, CA
- 2002 SECA Art Award, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA (catalogue)
A Chance Romance, Galerie Zink & Gegner, Munich, Germany
- 2002 John Bankston: Temptation and Desire, The Atlanta College of Art Gallery, Atlanta, GA
John Bankston:The Capture and Escape of Mr. M, Chapter 2, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY
- 2001 John Bankston: Lovers, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, CA
John Bankston:The Capture and Escape of Mr. M, Chapter I, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
- 1999 John Bankston, Recent Work, Bucheon Gallery, San Francisco, CA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
- 2009-10 A Delicate Touch: Watercolors from the Permanent Collection, Studio Museum Harlem, Harlem, NY
- 2009 Connections, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA and New York, NY
Political Draw, Walter Maciel Gallery, Culver City, CA
Collected, Proposition on the Permanent Collection, The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY Passover Table, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA
As It Is Written: Project 304,805, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA A Delicate Touch, the Studio Museum in Harlem, NY
- 2008-09 30 Americans, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL (catalog)
- 2008 Black: a celebration of African American Art in Sacramento area collections, 40 acres and
a mule gallery, Sacramento, CA
Creature Feature, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Drawings and works on paper, Center for Contemporary Art Sacramento, CA
- 2007 Pacific Light: California Watercolor Refracted, 1907–2007, SFSU Fine Arts Gallery, San Francisco
- 2006 black alphabet – contexts of contemporary African-American art, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland
- 2005 African Queen, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
The Anniversary Show, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Seeing Double: Encounters with Warhol, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA
Celebrating Heritage: Art and the Chris Webber Collection, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA (four person exhibition with Mike Henderson, David Huffman and Dominique Moody)
- 2005 Spice Boxes an Invitational: Scents of Purpose, Artists Interpret the Spice Box, The
Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA
Eureka Fellowship 2002-2004, University of California, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA
- 2004 Comics Stripped, Off the Preserve! Gallery, di Rosa Preserve: Art and Nature, Napa, CA
East of the Sun and West of the Moon, White Columns, New York, NY
- 2003 Scenery, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Comic Release, Negotiating Identity for a New Generation, The Regina Gouger Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburg, PA
Splat, Boom, Pow, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX
American Art Today: Faces & Figures, The Art Museum at Florida International University, Miami, FL
- 2002 Tribe, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Fantasyland, D'Amelio Terras Gallery, New York, NY
- 2001 Freestyle, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY. Traveled to Santa Monica Museum, Santa Monica, CA
Starry Night, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY
Comic Relief, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Breathless, Lombard Freid Fine Art, New York, NY
- 2000 A Big Picture Show, Bucheon Gallery, San Francisco, CA
- 1999-2000 Bay Area Now 2, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
- 1999 Countdown, Bucheon Gallery, San Francisco, CA
- 1998 Insomnia, Bucheon Gallery, San Francisco, CA
- 1997 Fellows Invitational, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA
Group Show, Linetzky Molinero Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
- 1996 Don Baum Says Chicago Has Famous Artists, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL
- 1994 Just Good Art, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL Illinois Center (curated by Struve Gallery), Chicago, IL
D.B.'s Grab Bag, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL
Emerging Talent: African-American Artists in California, Skyline College, San Bruno, CA
- 1993 Emerging Chicago Abstraction, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL
- 1991 Abstraction, 1991, Struve Gallery, Chicago, IL
- 1990 Abstraction - New Talent, Struve Gallery, Chicago, IL
Five Friend, Fifty Fingers, Gallery 2, Chicago, IL Artist from Outline, MWMWM Gallery, Chicago, IL
Skowhegan Group Show, Hokin-Kaufman Gallery, Chicago, IL Illinois Art Center, Chicago, IL
MFA Thesis Exhibition, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL
John Bankston and Jake Webster, Lake Michigan College, Benton Harbor, MI
- 1989 A Part of the Whole, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
- City of Chicago, Harold Washington Memorial Library Center, IL
- de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA
- di Rosa Preserve, Napa, CA
- Lake Michigan College, Benton Harbor, MI
- Norton Family Foundation, Santa Monica, CA
- Progressive Corporation, Mayfield Village, OH
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
- The Studio Museum, Harlem, NY
- Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
