John Schlesinger (born Topeka, KS; lives Philadelphia, PA) received an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. He works in collaboration with Tra Bouscaren under the name Dear Volunteers. Schlesinger has recently exhibited installations at UnSmoke Systems Artspace, Braddock, PA; The Center for Emerging Visual Artists and LoLa 38, both Philadelphia, PA; AC Institute, New York; VisArts, Rockville, MD; Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, San Francisco, CA and Whittier College, Whittier, CA. He has had fellowships from the Aaron Siskind Foundation, American Academy in Rome, Center for Emerging Visual Artists, and National Endowment for the Arts, as well as an award from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation. Schlesinger has been an artist in residence at the MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH and Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY. His work is in collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, IL; Dallas Museum of Art and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, both TX; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Brooklyn Museum and Museum of Modern Art, both New York; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; as well as the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany. His work has been reviewed in Aperture, Art in America, ARTnews, BOMB Magazine, The New York Times and The Village Voice.