Born 1987, New Jersey
Lives and works in Los Angeles, California
James Razko grew up on a small island in New Jersey. At the age of seventeen, Razko joined the military to escape suburbia and financehigher education. In 2008, James deployed to Iraq, a transformative experience that propelled Razko into the visual arts. His work explores conflict, established culture, and social justice. Razko completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Stockton University in 2011 and earned his Master of Fine Arts degree at the New York Academy of Art in 2015. During his time at the Academy, James received the Academy Scholarship, the New Jersey Heart of a Hero Scholarship, was awarded a summer residency in Moscow, Russia, and was one of six nominated for the Chubb Fellowship. His work is published in the acclaimed book, The Figure.In 2018, Razko received the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grant.
With several interwoven bodies of work, Razko explores, conflict, established culture, and social justice eschewing overtly political images. His poetic images are informed by pop culture, history, and personal experience. Recently, his work employs Trompe l'oeil to among other things, investigate notions of truth in the post-truth era. Razko's paintings aim to promote peace while challenging expectations, socio-political narratives, biases, belief systems, and trop.