Prof. Lowenfeld, his Jewish immigrant Hampton professor, Charles White, painter, Elizabeth Catlett, sculptor, and a UNESCO-sponsored scholarship were primary influencers to his work. While at Hampton, Biggers' work was featured at the Museum of Modern Art's (NY) 1943 Young Negro Art exhibition. In 1949, he established the art department at Texas Southern University where he taught for 30 years.
Having numerous one-man exhibitions, in 1995 the Houston and Hampton museums organized a retrospective, The Art of John Biggers: View from the Upper Room, that traveled to Boston, Hartford, and Raleigh, N.C. His work is found in private collections and major art museums including the National Museum of American Art (D.C.).