Josh MacPhee is an artist, curator and activist living in Brooklyn, New York. MacPhee graduated from Oberlin College in 1996 and spent eight years as an artist and activist in Chicago, Illinois where he established a distribution system called justseeds in order get more radical art projects out to the public. At its inception Justseeds primarily offered art by Josh MacPhee; now the Justseeds Artists' Cooperative is a cooperative of 25 like-minded artists.
Josh MacPhee is the author of Stencil Pirates: A Global Study of the Street Stencil, published by Soft Skull Press, which is dedicated to stencil street art; He co-edited Realizing the Impossible: Art Against Authority with Erik Rueland published by AK Press, and Reproduce and Revolt, with Favianna Rodriquez and the upcoming Paper Politics: Socially Engaged Printmaking Today on PM Press. MacPhee is also the curator of the politically charged printmaking exhibition, Paper Politics, which has been touring North America since 2004 and includes an international group of artists such as: Sue Coe, Swoon, Sixten, Meredith Stern and Meek. In 2001 he co-organized the Department of Space and Land Reclamation in Chicago with Emily Forman and Nato Thompson. In 2008 he co-curated the exhibition Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960's to Now with Dara Greenwald.
He is a member of the artist collaborative Spectres of Liberty with Olivia Robinson and Dara Greenwald.
Josh MacPhee served as the juror for the Third Coast National in 2008, an exhibition of eclectic artworks by artists from across the United States at K Space Contemporary in Corpus Christi, Texas.