James Bartolacci (*1988 in Easton, Pennsylvania, United States) received his MFA in Painting and Printmaking from the Yale School of Art, Connecticut, United States, in 2020. He is currently based in London, Great Britain. James Bartolacci is a recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant.

In his works from recent years, James Bartolacci documents queer nightlife in New York, continuing the work of Patrick Angus from the 1980s. He depicts the spaces, nightclubs, and people that form this vibrant network of parties that bring people together at night.

"As a painter, I want to show the range of emotions besides just ecstasy and revelry: moments of intimacy, connection, belonging, but also loneliness, isolation, or not fitting in." (James Bartolacci)

James Bartolacci’s background in painting focused heavily on color theory. He tries to paint colors at their most saturated, alluding to the vibrancy within the nightclub.

"When mixing my paint, I try to avoid using white paint, as white paint desaturates the color of oil paint. Instead, I achieve saturation by painting layer upon layer of pure pigment – the white background of the canvas under the paint shines through the pigment, creating an effect that resembles light or luminosity." (James Bartolacci)