Object Type: Painting

Dimensions:

Medium and Support: Acrylic on linen

Accession Number: 2024.0003.0001

Credit Line: Gift of Rebecca and Jack Drake

John Bankston is an American painter born in Benton Harbor, Michigan in 1963. He is known for his whimsical paintings of his fictional Rainbow Forest world that evoke memories of childhood coloring books and cartoons. He has said of his art, “My work is an ongoing visual narrative of the main character, Mr. M, as he journeys through the Rainbow Forest…Mr. M, somewhat callow and having been captured and brought to Rainbow Forest, is forced to learn the ways of his new environment.” (1) His work is heavily influenced by his identity as a Black, queer man who has had to learn how to navigate the real world, with many scholars believing Mr. M to be a stand-in for Bankston himself. Like the wolf in Cover Up, the animals in Bankston’s world take on human characteristics to serve as a guide through the Forest and help Mr. M understand his identity.

Bankston earned a Bachelor of Biology from the University of Chicago with plans to become a doctor until he took a studio art class, led by Chicago artist Vera Clement, that changed his course. He then studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, graduating with his MFA in 1990, and briefly at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1989. Bankston currently lives in San Francisco, California.

(1) Artist Statement