Jim Drain attended the Rhode Island School of Design (1994-1998 BFA, Sculpture) and was a member of Forcefield, a collective that explored the merging of music, performance film and installation into one platform. Forcefield was active from 1996 to 2002 and was part of the Whitney Biennial, 2002.
Drain has had solo exhibitions at the University of Florida; Locust Projects, Miami; and the Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin. Drain has participated in group exhibitions at MOCA, LA; the Fabric Workshop, Philadelphia; Serpentine Gallery, London; Depart Foundation, Rome; and the 7th Bienniale d’Art Contemporain de Lyon among others.
His work is in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of Art; Peres Art Museum, Miami; Museum of Modern Art; The Rhode Island School of Design Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Drain was recognized with artist Bhakti Baxter for creating “best public art projects in the nation” by Americans for the Arts in 2014.