Les Joynes, PhD

Multimedia Artist. Research Scholar on Art and Technology

Les Joynes is a New York-based artist and artistic researcher. As an American Arts Incubator artist with ZERO1 in 2019, Les works at the intersection of art, technology, and cross-cultural dialogue and now explores technologies and methodologies that shape intercultural space.

He is the founder of FormLAB, a platform for experimental and collaborative art that has exhibited internationally since 2012 across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. He recently founds KinoForm Films which documents cross-cultural collaboration in the arts in different cultural sites. He has also led U.S. Public Diplomacy projects throughout Asia.

Continuing his research and transnational identity as Fellow at the University of the Arts London Research Centre for Transnational Art, Identity, and Nation (TrAIN) he has continued to create multilateral projects with CEC ArtsLink (Mongolia), Fulbright Hays (Mongolia and China), Fulbright (India and Sri Lanka), The Brazilian Museum of Sculpture (Brazil) and The Bauhaus Foundation (Germany and Singapore). In 2025 he is visiting artist at the Dunedin School of Art in Otago (New Zealand).

His work and writing have appeared in Art in America, Sculpture, Art Monthly (London), Commons & Sense (Japan), and have been presented at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Inside-Out Art Museum (Beijing), Barbican Centre, Milch Gallery (London), and Mizuma Gallery (Tokyo).

Les holds a BA (Hons) Fine Art from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, MA Fine Art from Goldsmiths, University of London. Recipient of the Japan Monbusho (MeXT) Scholarship he completed the Masters in FineArt program at Musashino Art University, Tokyo, and completed his PhD from Leeds Metropolitan University’s Faculty of Art, Environment and Technology, and his Post-Doctorate from the University of São Paulo’s School of Art and Communications in Brazil.

He lives and works in New York.

Supporting new forms of cultural expression

As Fulbright Senior Scholar at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Les led research on Indian identities exploring ways to create platforms for expression. One project: Inclusive Biennial will highlight different community voices in different world regions. As a Fellow at the Highland Institute in Kohima India Les is creating India’s first mentoring program for Tribal Youth.

In 2023 as Artist Resident at the National Museum of Taiwanese Literature in Taipei and ByWoods Gallery, Kaohsiung he explored local storytelling in Taiwan and the historical relationships with indigenous, mainland and colonial cultures. Les has lectured n cross-cultural collaboration at National Taiwan Normal University, National Sun Yan Sen University, Columbia University, Cambridge University’s Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of the Arts London, and Peking University. Les has served as Professor of Record of Modern and Contemporary Art and Site-specific Art at Renmin University, Beijing; Visiting Professor of Creative Entrepreneurship at Peking University, and Fulbright Visiting Associate Professor at Visva Bharati University, India.

He serves as an Impact Entrepreneurship Coach and Mentor at Parson School of Design. A GoldAward trained mentor in the Arts (University of London) Les is a New York University-trained coach. At Columbia he serves as Coach in Residence at Almaworks Startup Incubator and Coach and Mentor at Columbia Startup Lab. Focused on the future of art, art education and technology he now serves as a Board Director of the College Art Association (CAA). He serves as a Fulbright Selector (2024-2027) and Selector for Japan Contemporararies.

Selected Lectures and Workshops on Contemporary Art

Joynes has led workshops and lectures on contemporary art and art education at University of the Arts London, University of Cambridge, Kookmin University, Seoul; Columbia University, the Bard-Smolny Curating Program, St Petersburg, University of California, Otis College of Art, Peking University and universities in India, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Mongolia and Singapore. Selected lectures and workshops include:

2025 Coaching and Mentoring in Art Education”, College Art Association Annual Conference, New York (2025), Coaching for Future Art Managers, Teachers College (2025); Coaching for Social Work (2025). 2023 “Coaching Mindset in Organizations”, National Taiwan University Normal University, Taipei (2023); “Pop Art and the Contemporary” National Museum of Taiwanese Literature, Taipei (2023); “Turning the studio inside-out”, National Taiwan University of Education, Taipei (2023); “Contemporary Arts and Climate Change”, National Sun Yat Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan (2023); “Models for intercultural Collaboration”, National Sun Yat Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan (2023); 2022 “Rethinking UNESCO Heritage: Expansion of Durga Puja into the Modern Sphere”, Kolkata, India (2022); “US-Indian collaboration in Education”, Vista-Bharati University India (2022); “Imagining the Museum of the Future”, Colombo National Museum, Sri Lanka (2022); “Interdisciplinary practices and artistic research”, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka (2022); “Collaborative Arts as Public Diplomacy, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka (2022); “Artistic Research in Performance”, University of Visual & Performing Arts, Colombo, Sri Lanka (2022); “Curriculum Design and the Arts”, Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management, Visakh, India (2022); “Collaborative and Site Specific art” Visva-Bharati University, India (2022); “Imagining careers in the arts” Vellammal Schools, Chennai, India (2022); “Photography and Memory of Disaster”- Tohoku Reframed, Chennai, India (2022); “Curating Site Specificity in India”, Visva-Bharati University, India (2022); 2021 “Coaching Mindset for Museums and Art Professionals, Association of Academic Museums and Galleries Conference (2021); 2020 “Central Asian art and the future”, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC (2020); 2019 ZERO1: US Department of State American Arts Incubator, San Francisco (2019); “Models for Intercultural Collaboration in the Arts and Culture”, Beihang University, Beijing, (2019); 2018 “Robert Rauschenberg in China”, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2018); “Entrepreneurship and Beyond Design Thinking in Creative Industries”, Peking University, Beijing (2018); “Pioneering Doctoral Research in the Creative Industries”, [Keynote], Peking University, Beijing (2018); "Art and Social Practice Chair, ProjectAnywhere Conference, Parsons School of Art, New York (2018); Cooperation between China and the US, Columbia University Global Center Beijing, China (2018); Artist-led models for museums”: Long Museum Shanghai, China (2018); 2017“US-China collaboration in the arts” US Embassy and the Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing, China (2017); “Curating Across Cultures”, Bard Smolny MA Curating Program, Saint Petersburg, Russia (2017); Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing, China (2017); 2016 Young Researchers Conference, American Center for Mongolian Studies, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (2016); College Arts Association, New York (2016); 2015 “Creativity as Intercultural Interface”, Teachers College, Columbia University (2015); “Performing cross-cultural spaces,” Mongolian State University for Art and Culture, Ulaanbaatar (2015); “The Artist as Interface” Teachers College, Columbia University, New York (2015); “Cross-cultural collaboration in Brazil and Mongolia,” Cambridge University, UK (2015); Young Researchers Conference, Mongolian National University for Education, Mongolia (2015); Mongolian National University for Art and Culture, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (2015); University of the Arts London Research Centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation, UK (2015); 2014 Zanabazar National Museum of Art, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (2014); “China Modern” National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China (2014); The Artist Explorer” College Arts Association Conference, Chicago (2014); 2013 Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics and University of Sao Paulo, Brazil (2013); 2012 Art Studio as Classroom Live, Brazilian Museum of Sculpture, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2012); Performing the Museum, Brazilian Museum of Sculpture, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2012); Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, Seoul, South Korea (2012); “Interdisciplinary Art as Research”, MA Fine Art, Kookmin University, Seoul; “Exploring site and local identity”, Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, South Korea (2012); 2010 Treignac-Projet, Correze, France (2010); 2009“Studio as Laboratory - Merging Photography with Performance”, Nanyang Academy, Singapore (2009); Performing Site in Singapore, La Salle College of Art/Nanyang Academy of Art, Singapore (2009); “Engaging the Visible and (trans)visible”, Bauhaus research in Singapore (2009); 2001 “Japanese Pop Art and the Emerging Contemporary”, Otis College of Art, Los Angeles, California (2001)