James Neal

I’m an artist- model, actor, writer and painter- based in New York. I began modeling and acting in the summer of 2024, painting in the summer of 2018 and am writing a memoir. I lead a rich life- without being rich.

My art tends to weaponize the male form to render the complex emotions triggered by negotiating identity in a world that vacillates between toleration of and contempt for otherness. By recasting the otherwise charged symbolism of the erotic male form, I put forth a challenge to normative constructions of masculinity, beauty and morality -- coaxing the viewer to play a role in this dynamic of otherness.

I am a native of North Carolina and live with my partner Dylan. I have two adult sons and Dylan and I have two rambuctioius cats who rule the roost. After graduating from Chapel Hill and the University of Chicago I worked as an investment banker, CEO of several start-up companies, producer of the play “Jeffrey” at the Geffen Playhouse, and head of a film and TV production services company in the West Village. In 2008 I became the second openly-gay person in US history to run for the US Senate (D-NC).

In 2019 I completed a compilation of 50 portraits in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion. In 2022 my work was featured at outdoor expositions in Montpellier and Paris, respectively, as well the group exhibition Transforming Minds at the East Village Art Collective in New York.

I have been a contributing writer on equality and justice issues to a host of publications, and a lecturer on contemporary US politics as an adjunct professor- focusing on the corrosive influence of money in politics. News outlets CNBC, NPR, NBC, ABC, FOX, Channel One (Britain) and ORF (Austria) have featured me as a guest. I currently work as fashion model, and actor in scripted film, television and commercial productions.