Los Angeles, CA
︎:Amina Cruz
Jamison Edgar (Los Angeles, CA) is an Indigenous scholar sowing roots in Southern California. A historical triangulator and avid student of the dancefloor, Edgar sculpts archival fragments into exuberant displays of joy and resistance. Their exhibitions, essays, and public programs emphasize the indispensable role that queer, trans, Black, Brown, and Indigenous artists play in shaping post-human imaginaries.
In Los Angeles, Edgar works with a range of organizations from community nonprofits and universities to commercial galleries and legacy art foundations. Recent collaborations include programs with the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Oregon Contemporary, the Tom of Finland Foundation, Metabolic Studio, and the ONE Institute for LGBT History. Edgar has also held teaching appointments at the University of California, Los Angeles, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe (DE). They have served as a guest critic at the University of Southern California, Southern California Institute of Architecture, California Institute of Technology, and the UCLA School of Architecture and Urban Design.
From 2021 to 2024, Edgar served as Director of Honor Fraser Gallery, where they led a conceptual overhaul of the exhibition program, foregrounding the entanglement of art, science, and technology. After leaving Honor Fraser, Edgar co-founded Departure Lounge, a nomadic exhibition platform supporting overworked artists and underfunded models of cultural exchange in Los Angeles.
Edgar studied art history and visual culture at Carnegie Mellon University (MFA) and creative writing at the University of Georgia (BFA). Their writing has appeared in publications by the Tom of Finland Foundation, the Miller Institute for Contemporary Art, Contemporary Performance, and the 59th Venice Biennale Estonian Pavilion. They are the 2026–2027 curator-in-residence at Oregon Contemporary, a SUPERCOLLIDER Art+Sci Ambassador, and serve on the executive board of the New Media Caucus.
Edgar’s exhibitions have been featured in Artforum, Frieze, Forbes, Hyperallergic, Art Papers, ArtReview, Artillery Magazine, Los Angeles Times, CARLA, and NPR.
“Curator to Watch”
- Artillery Magazine
“Not flawless, perhaps a necessary
shortcoming of their ambition.”
- Artforum
jamisonredgar@gmail.com
In Los Angeles, Edgar works with a range of organizations from community nonprofits and universities to commercial galleries and legacy art foundations. Recent collaborations include programs with the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Oregon Contemporary, the Tom of Finland Foundation, Metabolic Studio, and the ONE Institute for LGBT History. Edgar has also held teaching appointments at the University of California, Los Angeles, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe (DE). They have served as a guest critic at the University of Southern California, Southern California Institute of Architecture, California Institute of Technology, and the UCLA School of Architecture and Urban Design.
From 2021 to 2024, Edgar served as Director of Honor Fraser Gallery, where they led a conceptual overhaul of the exhibition program, foregrounding the entanglement of art, science, and technology. After leaving Honor Fraser, Edgar co-founded Departure Lounge, a nomadic exhibition platform supporting overworked artists and underfunded models of cultural exchange in Los Angeles.
Edgar studied art history and visual culture at Carnegie Mellon University (MFA) and creative writing at the University of Georgia (BFA). Their writing has appeared in publications by the Tom of Finland Foundation, the Miller Institute for Contemporary Art, Contemporary Performance, and the 59th Venice Biennale Estonian Pavilion. They are the 2026–2027 curator-in-residence at Oregon Contemporary, a SUPERCOLLIDER Art+Sci Ambassador, and serve on the executive board of the New Media Caucus.
Edgar’s exhibitions have been featured in Artforum, Frieze, Forbes, Hyperallergic, Art Papers, ArtReview, Artillery Magazine, Los Angeles Times, CARLA, and NPR.
“Curator to Watch”
- Artillery Magazine
“Not flawless, perhaps a necessary
shortcoming of their ambition.”
- Artforum
jamisonredgar@gmail.com
@jamisonkh4
Curatorial Statement
Below a thin layer of topsoil, the earth of my home state is red. The rust-colored clay in the American South is poor in nutrients but rich in pigment—a stubborn dye that stains water, skin, and denim alike. I grew up learning where to find the densest patches of muck and how to mix potions of vinegar and salt to combat their messy grip. But at some point, it became impolite to play in the mud. I didn’t notice when the fun stopped. I stopped growing up and began growing out of place.
That early sense of dissonance shaped how I move through the world as a curator. I know what it means to feel misrecognized, or not seen at all. I learned early that visibility can be both trap and tool, and that belonging isn’t something you’re given; it’s something you forge. Much of my work starts from this place: not assuming community, but co-creating it. My exhibitions often begin with a question, a tension, or an absence, and are shaped through long conversations, shared meals, intergenerational exchange, and cultural memory that isn’t always written down.
That early sense of dissonance shaped how I move through the world as a curator. I know what it means to feel misrecognized, or not seen at all. I learned early that visibility can be both trap and tool, and that belonging isn’t something you’re given; it’s something you forge. Much of my work starts from this place: not assuming community, but co-creating it. My exhibitions often begin with a question, a tension, or an absence, and are shaped through long conversations, shared meals, intergenerational exchange, and cultural memory that isn’t always written down.
I build exhibitions like gatherings: time-jumping, memory-soaked, and delightfully disobedient. I draw from queer tactics—world-building, rumor, refusal, glitch—and work closely with filmmakers, dancers, color guard collectives, land stewards, and archivists... Much of my work is grounded in queer and grassroots archiving, not just as a reservoir of the past but as a living, leaknig practice of embodied knowledge, gossip, kinship, and survival. I’m drawn to what resists clean documentation. My exhibitions make space for the sticky, the spectral, the unsanitized.
When I curate, I move fluidly between research, conversation, writing, programming, and design, with each part informing the next. I listen carefully and work slowly, building trust through sustained engagement. Whether I’m working within an institution or collaborating with artists and organizers outside of one, I approach curating as a practice of shared authorship—not to impose coherence, but to hold space for complexity and create work that resonates with the people it’s made for.
When I curate, I move fluidly between research, conversation, writing, programming, and design, with each part informing the next. I listen carefully and work slowly, building trust through sustained engagement. Whether I’m working within an institution or collaborating with artists and organizers outside of one, I approach curating as a practice of shared authorship—not to impose coherence, but to hold space for complexity and create work that resonates with the people it’s made for.
