BROOKLYN, NY.- Transmitter will present Point of No Return, a solo exhibition by James Parker Foley. Made across a period of profound personal transformation, this exhibition brings together two bodies of drawings; a group of graphite images begun during a residency in Mississippi in October 2022, and a subsequent body of colored pencil works begun in October 2023.
The first body of drawings emerged while the artist was privately grappling with a desire to live as a gay man. This secret desire became the narrative undercurrent for a hidden fantasy world, drawn on intimately-scaled paper in the vulnerable medium of graphite. The colored pencil works that followed a year later, after the artist had begun to transition, wrestle with what it means to be a man, and how to build a life for himself as a trans person.
Together the two bodies of work reveal a landscape that tackles and celebrates multiple perspectives (internal, emotional and spatial). The relationship between the corporeal and the spiritual are not always in-sync as we move through our lives. Inevitably, we all experience the tension as well as the interdependence of the material and immaterial as we move through developments of self-discovery. The body and soul can be quarrelsome, mischievously inseparable companions that are bound to each other even as they pull in different directions, and they can also unite in moments of ecstasy and a perfect conversion.
For Foley, the dream-like worlds within his drawings are places to physically and narratively work through the difficult labor of becoming oneself (including the curiosity and play that can accompany that challenging work). Foley’s lexicon of symbols–hats, purses, the moon, and traffic cones–serve as recurring characters that support the efforts the figures are undertaking: making peace with doubt, living with paradox and mystery, and embracing fantasy without judgment.
The exhibition is installed chronologically, tracing the arc of this evolution. The earliest works in the show allowed the artist to envision parts of himself he could not yet articulate by any other means, the safety of a drawing practice became an engine for discovery, articulation and acceptance. Once a vision of this new self came into being, there was no living as anyone else.
James Parker Foley (b. 1993) is an oil painter known for his brilliant blue figures floating, swimming, and wading through surreal landscapes. He has exhibited extensively in the Northeast, including Sarah Bouchard Gallery, Spring/Break Art Fair New York, Elizabeth Moss Gallery, Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, and New System Exhibitions. Most recently, he has shown work at the Portland Museum of Art in Maine, Transmitter Gallery in New York, and the McColl Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. His work has been featured in New American Paintings, Maine Magazine, and the Portland Press Herald, and can be found in significant public and private collections, including the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
James earned his MFA at Maine College of Art in 2020 and his BA in Environmental Humanities at Sterling College in Vermont in 2015. He has completed residencies on Monhegan Island (2021), Jx Farms (2022), Monson Arts (2023), and Hewnoaks (2024, 2025). He is the founder of Ultraviolet Arts, a community residency for trans artists and club magic, an apartment gallery and curatorial platform. James is a gay transsexual whose practice is grounded within and inspired by an intimate community of queer artists in Portland, Maine.
