The latest works by Grey James emerge from the artist’s personal experience as a trans man who has faced sustained harassment and defamation. In response to being targeted by anti-trans individuals, these new paintings and mixed media works become charged with heightened emotion, vulnerability, and defiance. The title PJOB, an acronym for “Pink Jerkoff Boy,” refers to a painting sold in 2017 that was later weaponized by James’ tormentors as supposed evidence of moral depravity. By reclaiming and reusing this phrase within his artistic practice, James transforms a symbol of humiliation into an act of resistance and self-assertion.

For many years, James’ work has revolved around the repeated examination of recurring motifs such as solitary male figures, lemons, expansive skies, and quiet domestic or psychological spaces. These images function not simply as visual subjects, but as meditative structures through which the artist explores emotional states, identity, memory, and perception. Central to the work is the idea of “Nothing,” a concept that James approaches not as emptiness, but as a condition filled with tension, contemplation, and latent meaning. As the artist himself observes, “there’s a lot going on in Nothing.”

Through restrained compositions and recurring imagery, James investigates experiences of solitude, simplicity, and introspection, drawing attention to the emotional and philosophical dimensions embedded in ordinary moments. The apparent banality or stillness of the works gradually gives way to deeper reflections on silence, vulnerability, and the act of observing the world. In the context of the artist’s recent experiences, these themes acquire an added intensity, positioning the works as both personal meditations and acts of resilience. Together, the exhibition reveals a practice in which intimacy and confrontation coexist, and where quiet contemplation becomes inseparable from questions of identity, survival, and self-definition.