James Holmes
Wyoming Landscape
Southwest Landscape #1
Presindential Cowboy Hat
Imbalance
Football
Cabin Home
Cabin Home (open)
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
Outsider, craft and folk art have provided an abundance of inspiration for my work. This area of the arts resonates as genuine to me, existing for the most part unaffected by the art world and the business of art. There have been many great mentors in my career; HC Westermann and SP Dinsmore head my list. When I was 20 years old I saw "The Garden of Eden" by Dinsmore. For me this environment represented a complete idea. Although Dinsmore incorporated craft, architecture and fine art in his work, he never considered himself an artist. I don't believe in the boundaries between art, craft and design, I believe it is a part of the same whole. Twenty years ago being a 'craft artist' was difficult, earning little respect from the larger world of 'fine' art - hard lines were drawn, these seem to be fading with time.
Grassroots folk environments influenced me early on. In 1974, a group of six artists, myself included, formed The Kansas Grassroots Art Association, a non-profit in which I held the position of president. Our first major undertaking was the restoration of Ed Galloway's five-story concrete totem pole in Foyill, Oklahoma. Our organization along with the Kohler Foundation and Seymour Rosen's Spaces in California was groundbreaking in its efforts to document and preserve environments of historical and artistic significance.
As far back as I can remember I have been making things with my hands. I began studies in the field of art at a young age and was fortunate to be encouraged in this direction. During my education I was a student to an incredible teacher of life drawing and anatomy. Suddenly the human form exploded in to three-dimensions, opening wide the door to sculpture. When I don't create, everything slides rapidly downhill, I have found that life presents fewer hitches when I am making art. Self-therapy isn't as much a factor in my work as the inexplicable drive to create.
Fresh out of undergraduate school, you find that you are no more than a sophisticated trade worker. Cabinetry versus rough carpentry seemed to be my direction. A belief in quality and always doing the best job possible has been one of the major threads in creating my work. For me there is little distinction between making art, furniture or cabinetry - art involves itself in everything I do. I find inspiration in every project, through the materials, the construction and then the completed object. Working in this field I quickly developed my interests in Architecture and industrial design. Each completed piece incorporates my skills and interests merged with my artistic aesthetics and ideas. I like to believe that my art exceed high-craft through inclusion of meaningful ideas, depth, humor and my attitude towards living life.
BIOGRAPHY
Born, Wichita, Kansas 1950
EDUCATION
1973 BFA University of Kansas – Lawrence, KS
1978 MFA School of the Art Institute of Chicago – Chicago, IL
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1998 Cumberland Gallery – Nashville, TN
1996 Bruce Kapson Gallery – Santa Monica, CA
Pat’s Downtown Club, Full Size Sculptural Units –Santa Fe, NM
1994 Cumberland Gallery – Nashville, TN
1991 Morgan Gallery – Kansas City, Missouri
1989 Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art – Great Falls, MT
1987 Landfall Press, Chicago International New Art Forms Exposition,Chicago, IL
Pasadena City College Art Gallery – Pasadena, CA
1986 Gallery at the Mark Twain Bank Plaza- Kansas City, KS
1985 Gallery Karl Oskar – Kansas City, KS
1983 Landfall Gallery – Chicago, IL
Gallery of Art, The University of Missouri at Kansas City – Kansas City, MO
1982 Landfall Gallery, Chicago International Art Exposition – Chicago, IL
1981 Landfall Gallery - Chicago, IL
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2003 Trappings of the American West -Panhandle Plains Historical Museum - Canyon, TX, Flagstaff, AZ
Trappings of the American West - Sedona, AZ
Hammer Gallery - Chicago, IL
2002 Panhandle Plains Historical Museum, Invitational - Canyon, TX
New Art of the West 8, The Eiteljorg Museum - Indianapolis, IA
Nuevo Mexico Monument, James Holmes and Pat Kikut, University of New Mexico - Las Vegas, NM
2001 A Common Legacy: The influence of H.C. Westermann on five contemporary sculptors Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery – Nashville, TN
SITE Santa Fe, Monothon – sponsored by SITE Santa Fe, NM
Buschlen Mowatt Galleries – Vancouver, Canada
New Blood: New Mexico 2001 – van de Griff/Marr Gallery – Santa Fe, NM
Governor’s Gallery, Group Exhibition, Santa Fe State Capital Building
Buschlen Mowatt Galleries – Palm Desert, CA
Panhandle Plains Historical Museum, Invitational – Canyon, TX
ART Santa Fe, International Art Fair – Landfall Press, Chicago, IL
2000 Museum of Fine Art, Term Limits – Santa Fe, NM
Cumberland Gallery, 20th Anniversary Exhibition – Nashville, TN
Panhandle Plains Historical Museum, 2000 Invitational – Canyon, TX
1998 Landfall Gallery, Chicago International Art Exposition – Chicago, IL
Dry Creek Arts Fellowship, Beyond the 98th Meridian – Sedona, AZ
RSC Arts Gallery, Santa Ana College, Chairs – Santa Ana, Texas
1997 Landfall Gallery, Chicago International Art Exposition – Chicago, IL
Art Seattle, International Art Exposition – Seattle, Washington
Dry Creek Arts Fellowship, Beyond the 98th Meridian – Sedona, Arizona
1996 Museum of Fine Arts, Southwest ’96 – Santa Fe, NM
1995 Beyond Bounds: A Barely Contained Affair - Kansas City, MO
1994 Art Seattle, International Art Exposition – Seattle, WA
University of Hawaii, International Shoebox Sculpture Show – Honolulu, HI
Cumberland Gallery, Artists Invite Artists – Nashville, TN
1992 Morgan Gallery – Kansas City, MO
1991 Jan Baum Gallery, Finals in Painting and Sculpture - Los Angeles, CA
1990 Vanderbilt University of Fine Arts Gallery, Nashville, TN
Kansas City Artist's Invitational - Kansas City, MO
Ann Reed Gallery – Ketchum, IO
1989 Kaw Valley Art Gallery, Gallery ’89 – Kansas City, MO
1988 Judy Rausch Gallery, New Art Forms –Chicago, IL
Joslyn Art Museum, Twentieth Joslyn Biennial – Omaha, NE
1987 The Right Foot - SF International Airport – San Francisco, CA
The Downtown Foot Show -SF International Airport – San Francisco, CA
The Foot Show - Los Angeles, CA
American Contemporary Works in Wood - SE Ohio Cultural Arts Center, Athens, OH
A Kansas Collection – National Museum of Women in the Arts,Washington, DC
1986 Leedy-Voulkos Gallery, Personal Vision – Kansas City, MO
Carl Hammer Gallery, Eccentric Images – Chicago, IL
1985 Harcus Gallery, Winter Exhibition – Boston, MA
1984 Landfall Gallery, Chicago International Art Exposition - Chicago, IL
Jeff Baum Gallery, Finals in Painting and Sculpture – Los Angeles, CA
Van Straaten Gallery, Chicago International Art Exposition - Chicago, IL
Mulvane Art Center, Kansas Four – Topeka, KS
1983 Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kansas City Art Institute, Jim Morgan Memorial
Kansas City, MO
1981 Landfall Gallery, Chicago International Art Exposition - Chicago, IL
Landfall Gallery, Chairs - Chicago,IL
AWARDS AND HONORS
2003 Purchase Award, New Art of the West 8, Biennial, Eiteljorg Museum - Indianapolis, IA
Permanent Collection, Eiteljorg Museum - Indianapolis, IA
1990 Nominee, Awards in Visual Arts, SE Center for Contemporary Art – Winston-Salem, NC
Best of Show, The Art of Baseball, Kaw Valley Arts & Humanities Inc. – Kansas City, KS
Folk Arts Apprenticeship Grant, Kansas State Historical Society - Kansas City, MO
1989 Best of Show, Gallery ‘89, Kaw Valley Arts and Humanities Inc.– Kansas City, MO
1978 Fred Forrester Fellowship – School of the Art Institute of Chicago