About

Jonathan Michael Castillo is a visual artist, photographer and educator based in Chicago.  He was the 2019-2021 recipient of the Diane Dammeyer Fellowship in Photographic Arts and Social Issues.  Jonathan was included in the 2021 Hyde Park Art Center's Ground Floor Biennial in Chicago and was a finalist for the WMA Commission in Hong Kong.  His work has been featured with The New Yorker, Wired, The Chicago Tribune, CBS: Los Angeles, and Brazil's G1 Globo. He has been interviewed on the BBC's “World Update” and Los Angeles public radio stations KPCC and KCRW.  Jonathan was recently commissioned to create a large-scale permanent installation of his work at O’Hare International Airport as part of the Terminal 5 expansion project. In 2023 he was commissioned to make work for the city of Chicago’s Citywide Plan in partnership with the Department of Cultural Affairs and the Department of Planning and Development.  Exhibitions include those at the Art Institute Chicago, Photo LA 2020, the Center for Creative Photography, Aperture Gallery, House of Lucie, Filter Photo Gallery, Ralph Arnold Gallery and the California Museum of Art Thousand Oaks. Jonathan is represented by Samuel Maenhoudt Gallery in Belgium. His education includes a BFA from California State University Long Beach and MFA from Columbia College Chicago.

Additionally, he can shoot an apple off your head with an arrow from 90 meters, play a rendition of In the Mood on the Tenor Saxophone that would have made Glenn Miller proud, is a retired semi-pro paintball player, once performed in a musical version of Ghostbusters on roller skates and he has pictures to prove it.