Calm's work has been exhibited in galleries and museums internationally, and written about in many publications. In 2008 he was the recipient of an Art Matters grant.
Since 2009, Calm has been dividing his time between his native New York and Boston, where he teaches and is director of the Senior Thesis Program at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Work
Jonathan Calm's photo and video work explores connections with the aesthetics of sculpture, documentary journalism, and architecture. The architectural development of public housing and its socio-cultural, historical and geopolitical impact on local and global urban communities constitutes a major theme in his art.
Calm was one of the featured artists in the Renaissance Society of Chicago's 2008 Black Is, Black Ain't exhibition, which showcased racially related themes of what has been called Post-Blackness.
Calm participated in the 2015 Pulse New York Art Fair.
Exhibitions
Selected solo exhibitions
“Jonathan Calm: Chambers,” LMAKprojects, New York, NY, 2014
“Jonathan Calm: Projects,” Caren Golden Fine Art, New York, NY, 2008
“New Visions: Emerging Trends in African American Art,“ Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture, Washington, DC, 2003
In print
Copeland, Huey. “The Blackness of Blackness,” Artforum, October, 2009, p.151
Hunt, David. “Jonathan Calm,” Artext, Fall 2002 (illus.)
Minto, Brooke. “Frequency,” catalogue essay, Studio Museum of Art, NYC, Nov 9, 2005–March 12, 2006, pp.34–35 (illus.)
Pollack, Barbara, “Frequency,” Art News, Feb. 2006, p.129
Reimer, Karen and Hamza Walker, Black is, Black Ain't, catalogue, 2013
Sirmans, Franklin. “Mass Appeal: The Art Object and Hip Hop Culture,” catalogue essay, Gallery 101, Ottawa, Canada, August 2002
Valdez, Sarah. “Report From New York, Bling and Beyond,” Art in America, April 2006, p.63 (illus.)
Young, Lisa J. “Jonathan Calm,” Tema Celeste, July–August, 2002, p.90 (illus.)
