James Jankowiak aka Casper

James Jankowiak is old Chicago with back-of-the yards, blue collar, Nelson Algren/Studs Terkel type of artistic grit and realism. Casper was involved in early Chi-Town graffiti movements and co-founder of Aerosoul crew. He now teaches art to inner-city high school and elementary school students through Urban Gateways and the Museum of Contemporary Art.

As a kid he was busted for tagging bathroom stalls at Comiskey Park. Over ten years later, the White Sox organization commissioned him to paint a 256 foot long mural commemorating 100 years of White Sox history. Honest like his portraits, James Jankowiak captures the dichotomies of the human condition, open, close-up, brutal and beautiful.

(Biography taken from the exhibition catalog, "Throwing a Spin in the Works" written by Kevin Coval, 2004.)