josh brainin (b. 1997) is a filmmaker and artist based between Chicago and NYC. He holds a BA from Amherst College and an MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Film & Video. Through films that blur the line between the fictional and the real, as well as through costume design and performance, josh’s practice investigates questions of youth cultures, Black/mixed racializations, masculine conditionings, and the relationship between art and its institutional settings.
josh’s images have appeared in publications and sites such as Hyperallergic, Office Magazine. the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Artsy, Jupiter Magazine, Burnaway, and Momus Art. A selection of josh’s works have been included in some of the following festivals and art venues:
Chicago International Film Festival 2025, Chicago History Museum & AMC Newcity 14 - Chicago, Illinois
Flux 2025, BAM - Brooklyn, New York
Mono No Aware Screening 2024, The Museum of Modern Art - New York City, New York
Black Harvest Film Festival 2024, Gene Siskel Film Center - Chicago, Illinois
Barbara DeGenevieve’s “Subversive Pleasures, Mapping the Problematic” 2024, Site Gallery - Chicago, Illinois
Athens International Film and Video Festival 2025, Athena Cinema - Athens, Ohio
Onion City Experimental Film Festival 2025, Chicago Filmmakers - Chicago, Illinois
Full Spectrum Features “Cyberslime” Touring Anthology 2025, Facets Cinema - Chicago, Illinois
josh brainin Selected Works Exhibition 2025, Gure Gallery - Chicago, Illinois
Celluloid Now 2025, Gene Siskel - Chicago, Illinois