{{Short description|American artist and art professor}} {{Multiple issues| {{notability|1=Biographies|date=November 2020}} {{BLP sources|date=October 2020}} }}
'''Jim Toia''' is an American studio artist and professor of art.
== Early life == Toia was born in the U.S. state of New Jersey. He attended Lawrenceville School where he discovered an Amanita muscaria on the school grounds and researched its deadly attributes.<ref name="StateNJ">{{cite AV media| title=Jim Toia: The Art of Uncertainty |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR3IeqTDM3w|access-date=2020-10-02|via=YouTube|publisher=StateoftheArtsNJ |language=en-US}}</ref> At Bard College he took Field Studies in Natural History with biologist Bill Maple.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Gorce|first=Tammy La|date=2015-10-01|title=Pieces of Nature Preserved as Art at the New Jersey State Museum|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/nyregion/pieces-of-nature-preserved-as-art-at-the-new-jersey-state-museum.html|access-date=2020-09-15|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> At Bard, Toia studied art with Jim Sullivan, Nancy Mitchnick and Jake Greossberg. He received his MFA from the School of Visual Arts and worked with Loren Madsen, Judy Pfaff, Lucio Pozzi, Petah Coyne, Jackie Windsor, and Bill Tucker.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}} Before SVA he attended a studio program{{where|date=October 2020}} in Urbino, Italy where he discussed his work with visiting artists in residence Eliseo Mattiacci, Enzo Cucchi, and Jannis Kounnelis.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}
== Career ==
=== Early career === In the 1980s, Toia was a Studio Assistant to Stephen Antonakos.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Call|first=Geoff Gehman Of The Morning|title=Creativity of neon artist never lights up the same way twice|url=https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-2004-02-19-3522998-story.html|access-date=2020-09-15|website=mcall.com|date=19 February 2004 |language=en-US}}</ref> Toia traveled internationally with Antonakos, installing permanent installations{{where|date=October 2020}} as well as large scale exhibitions.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}
After graduate school, while pursuing his art career, Toia taught at County College of Morris in Randolph, NJ and subsequently became Gallery Director there and then at Lafayette College from 1998-2008.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}
=== Studio art === Toia had his first solo exhibition in 1986 and has since been showing his spore drawings, inky cap paintings, ant hill castings, and more in exhibitions and residencies in the US and abroad{{where|date=October 2020}}. In March 2002, his works were displayed at the Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, New Jersey in an exhibition entitled "Jim Toia: Groundwork" and featuring mushrooms as both source and subject.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Zimmer |first1=William |title=Art Review: Finding Meaning in Mushrooms Served Up as Art |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/24/nyregion/art-review-finding-meaning-in-mushrooms-served-up-as-art.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 24, 2002}}</ref> In 2020, Toia completed a residency with boxoPROJECTS<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-08-04|title=Jim Toia|url=https://boxoprojects.com/jim-toia/|access-date=2020-09-15|website=BoxoPROJECTS|language=en}}</ref> in Joshua Tree, CA where he developed works around the study and manipulation of images of the desert crust. Toia is represented by the Kim Foster Gallery in New York City.<ref name="FosterGallery">{{Cite web|title=Jim Toia|url=https://kimfostergallery.com/jim-toia/|access-date=2020-09-15|website=kimfostergallery.com}}</ref>
=== Teaching === Toia is a professor of studio art at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania where he is involved with the Community Based Learning programs and the Creative and Performing Arts (CaPA) Fellowship, and also leads an arts mentorship program with the local Easton Area High School.<ref name="FosterGallery"/>
He is also the Chair of the Karl Stirner Arts Trail also in Easton, Pennsylvania.<ref name="StateNJ"/>
=== Bibliography ===
* ''Tying & Untying''. Cowritten with Lee Upton. Clinton, NJ: Lucia Press, 2012.
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Toia, Jim}} Category:Living people Category:Artists from New Jersey Category:Bard College alumni Category:Lafayette College faculty Category:Lawrenceville School alumni Category:School of Visual Arts alumni Category:Year of birth missing (living people)