ALH 2016 Texas Artist of the Year Exhibition: HOVER by Terrell James

Art League Houston (ALH) is excited to present the 2016 Texas Artist of the Year Exhibition: HOVER by Terrell James. On view September 30 through November 19. Opening reception: Friday, September 30, 6-9 PM.

The exhibition includes a comprehensive survey of work in a range of media, including painting, sculpture and printmaking that, seen together, trace the development of the artist’s exceptional career.

The work in this exhibition features a selection of paintings dating from 2007 to the present, which reflect James’s profound and lifelong engagement with the experiential essence of landscape and memory. Additionally, the exhibition introduces viewers to the artist’s lesser known sculptural works in bronze and clay, and premieres a never before seen series of monoprints.

An exhibition catalogue will be available featuring an essay by New York critic and writer Stephanie Buhmann.

The work of Terrell James is steeped in landscape – not in a pictorial but in an emotive sense. Her abstract paintings and works on paper capture a private, internalized experience of nature. They draw on its vocabulary without trying to reflect it. There are no depictions of skyscapes, water or land and yet, each of James’ compositions seem to render a unique place as it emanates a distinct atmosphere. They offer an impression of mood, a glimpse of the artist’s private resonance with her subject. It is an approach that is timeless and yet, honors a certain tradition of abstract painting.

Excerpt from ‘PLACE AND TRANSITION IN THE WORK OF TERRELL JAMES’ by Stephanie Buhmann.

Terrell James is a well-known Houston-based artist whose abstract painting and works on paper are characterized by an expansive vocabulary of gestural mark-making, automatist brushwork and illuminating interactions of form, light, color and density, embodying strong references to the natural world.

For the past thirty years, her methodology has been playfully intuitive and intellectually rigorous. She has produced an extraordinary body of work which reflects the conviction and knowledge of a skillful painter. Additionally, the work negotiates the dichotomy between the conscious and the subconscious, while remaining as open to interpretation as possible.

James is a fourth generation Houstonian, and seventh generation Texan. Although Houston-based, she has lived and created work in studios nationally and internationally including Soho, Harlem, Long Island, Montauk, Bald Head Island, Bologna, San Miguel de Allende, Marfa, and Berlin.

Since the early 1990’s, she has made trips to the Davis Mountains and to the Big Bend region at the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert in west Texas. On these trips, James fills her sketchbook with line studies, not as notations of what is scenic about landscapes, but rather of what the daunting terrain suggests—free flowing impressions of colors, lines and shapes (Edwards, 2014).

Walter Hopps, the legendary Curator and Founding Director of The Menil Collection, viewed James as being among the finest gestural abstractionists working in Texas and as one of the best in the country. Hopps stated, “she has mastered a lyrical freedom usually seen in watercolor rather than in oil. Although articulated line is often structurally important, the paintings are primarily built of patches and fluid areas of color.” Hopps, having earlier championed the abstract paintings of Richard Diebenkorn and Sam Francis in the 1950’s, is eminently qualified to have praised the art of James in the first decade of the twenty-first century.

In addition to her large painted canvases, James began a long-term series of color explorations in 1997 titled Field Studies, which the artist describes as drawing with paint. Over the past decade, she has created more than six hundred oil on vellum works in this series, treating each one like scientific research and cataloguing it with a specific number. As opposed to the densely layered surfaces of her canvases, the Field Studies are spontaneous open paintings with floating fields of color. The title Field Studies is a reference the Impressionist technique of color “notes” taken quickly outdoors, as well as a reference to her own process of experimenting with color and form (Froelick, 2010).

In talking about her work, James states:

“I am certain that natural places and living things will always underlie much of what I do. However, as it has evolved, my practice has grown to absorb contexts beyond narrow definitions of “landscape” and “nature.” I now deliberately explore newly available and even unavoidable fields. My work has become engaged with unexpected material. Sometimes it seems that I am simply absorbing and processing everything I encounter. The limitless deluge of the all-enveloping digital world has inspired an expanded palette, to include a vastly larger range of materials, colors and effects.”

Often James’s approach to painting can be site-specific, painted as a mural directly on the wall.  Previous work on steel, sometimes collaboratively with artist Ed Wilson, can become a part of “permanent” architecture, or be presented as a site-specific installation with abutting panels.  These pieces can be divided, standing on their own, or presented as a frieze, commanding an entire room. These have been done on cold rolled steel panels, chemically manipulated in color, rusting in Rorschach-like patterns; as well as fourteen-foot-long sections of painted paper, oil and acrylic. Presented in a continuum, the pieces are later separated and placed in various locations, spanning less than 35 feet.

Expanding her repertoire into three dimensions, James also experiments with and creates sculpture. In a statement written in 2003, James talks about her initial explorations into sculpture, in clay, wax, and bronze. “For years I had been wanting to make things, populating the floor, not the wall.  In making them, a door opened.  I saw the unnamed images in my drawings, the recurring curves and language glyphs that have populated my work for fifteen years, with a new understanding. When seen from the corner of the studio, the clay forms seem to belong on the ocean floor, or in the recesses of a cave; and, somehow, I began to draw the objects themselves into new paintings. There is a new solidity, a rigor that has come from the sculptural objects. They are really more aptly described as expressions of the hand in a new material.” The newest three dimensional works are in clay, consisting of multiple vessels made from North Carolina and Georgia clay, created at the invitation of master ceramist Hiroshi Sueyoshi, then director of the Pancoe Ceramics Center at the Cameron Museum of Art, in Wilmington, NC. James considers the vessels series to be a collaboration with Sueyoshi.

In 1977, James received a BA in Fine Arts from the University of the South, in Sewanee, Tennessee, with additional study at the Instituto Allende, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico (1973), Bellas Artes, Universidad de Mexico, Print Annex, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato (1973) and the School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (1978-79).

Early in her career she worked for five years sorting and documenting the work of many artists and museums for the Texas Project of the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art, preparing for microfilming original source material of artists, collectors, and institutions for future scholarship. James has also curated shows at local, national and international venues including the Houston for the Center for Art and Performance, DiverseWorks, Hiram Butler Gallery, GalleryHomeland, along with Wei Hong and Wang Yiqiong, Songzhang Art Space, Beijing. In addition to her practice, James taught at the Glassell School, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, for fourteen years and was Chair of the Painting Department. She has served as a guest professor at Rice University, was one of the originating board members at DiverseWorks, and for over a decade served on the board of Gulf Coast: Journal of Art and Literature, the graduate publication of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston.

Over the years, James has had solo exhibits locally, nationally and internationally at venues including Hiram Butler Gallery, Houston TX (2016, 2013, 2011, 2008, 2007, 2004, 2003, 2001, 2000, 1998, 1997, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1991); Cadogan Contemporary, London UK (2016); Froelick Gallery, Portland OR (2016, 2014, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2003); Barry Whistler Gallery, Dallas TX (2016, 2014, 2011, 2009); The Cameron Art Museum, Wilmington NC (2011); Jason McCoy Gallery, New York NY (2010, 2007, 2004); Fundacion Centro Cultural, Santo Domingo Dominican Republic (2003); Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi TX (1997), Delgado College Gallery, New Orleans LA (1992, 1985), C.G. Jung Center, Houston TX (1991), Graham Gallery, Houston TX (1989, 1985, 1982), Bishop’s Common, University of the South, Sewanee TN (1981), and Christ Church Cathedral, Houston TX (1978).

James’ work has also been included in national and international group exhibits at venues including Jason McCoy Gallery, New York NY (2015, 2011, 2010, 2009); Barry Whistler Gallery, Dallas TX (2016, 2015, 2014, 2013,2012 2011, 2010, 2009, 2001, 1991, 1988, 1987, 1986); Gallery Homeland, Portland OR (2012, 2009); Froelick Gallery, Portland OR (2014, 2012, 2011, 2009, 2006, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1996); The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston TX (2015, 2011, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1996, 1994, 1993); Williams Tower, Houston TX (2013); Lawndale Art Center, Houston TX (2011, 2000, 1998, 1996, 1994, 1993, 1987, 1986, 1985, 1984, 1983, 1982, 1979); Pillsbury Peters (2011, 2010, 2009, 2008); Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe NM (2011, 2009); Sin Sin Fine Art, Hong Kong (2008, 2006); Portland Art Museum, OR (2010, 2003); Museo Moderne Artes, Trujillo, Peru (2007); Marfa Book Company, Marfa TX (2002); DiverseWorks, Houston TX (2002, 1990, 1986, 1985, 1984, 1983); Hiram Butler Gallery, Houston TX (2001, 2000, 1998, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1989); Dutch Triodos Bank, Zeiss, The Netherlands (2010-2001); Arlington Museum of Art, Arlington TX (2001, 1999, 1991); The Old Jail—Art Center, Albany TX (2000); Hooks Epstein Gallery, Houston TX (2000, 1989); Tembo Cerling Print Studio, Houston TX (2000); The HK Visual Arts Center, Hong Kong (1999); Mohseni Fine Arts, Limited, Hong Kong (1999); Dutch Triodos Bank, Amsterdam (1999); United States Embassy, Mexico City, D.F. (1999); Shanghai Cultural Center, Shanghai, China (1999); Centro Cultural/Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, D.F (1999, 1997, 1994, 1991); Galveston Arts Center, Galveston TX (1997, 1996, 1985); Takara Gallery, Houston TX (1997); Barbara Davis Gallery Houston, TX (1996); Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston TX (1993); Sally Sprout Gallery, Houston TX (1993); Transco Gallery, Houston TX (1992); BlueStar ArtSpace, San Antonio TX (1991); McNay Art Museum, San Antonio TX (1989); Jack Tilton Gallery, New York NY (1989, 1988); Graham Gallery, Houston TX (1988,1987, 1986, 1985, 1983); Sewall Art Gallery, Rice University, Houston TX (1988); Bronxville, New York NY (1986); Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans LA (1985); Southern California Gallery for Contemporary Arts, Los Angeles CA (1985); University of Saint Thomas, Houston TX (1985); Drawing Room Gallery, Houston TX (1985); Houston Coalition for the Visual Arts, Square One Gallery, Houston TX (1985); Midtown Art Center, Houston TX (1984); Rachel Davis Gallery, Houston TX (1984); Houston Women’s Caucus for Art, Houston TX (1984, 1983); Center for Art & Performance, Houston TX (1982); Art League Houston, Houston TX (1979), St. Luke’s School of Theology, Sewanee TN (1977), Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga TN (1976).

James’ work is featured in several public collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York NY; The Menil Collection, Houston TX; Dallas Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Casa Lamm/Televisa Cultural Foundation, Mexico; Centro Cultural/Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City; Museum of University of the South, Sewanee, TN; Portland Art Museum—Gilkey Center Graphic Arts, OR; Rice University—Print Collection, Houston, TX; Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA and University of St. Thomas, Houston, TX.

Additionally, James’ work has been written about in publications including Art in America, ARTnews, Art Lies, the Dallas Morning News, Glasstire, The Oregonian, the Houston Chronicle, as well as various books and catalogues. James herself has had pieces published in Gulf Coast, the Houston Chronicle, and Art Lies, along with published artist statements.

In 2013, James joined the No Boundaries International Art Residency at Bald Head Island, NC, and was one of four artists selected by the Joan Mitchell Foundation’s 2013-16 Pilot Call Program in Texas, which facilitates comprehensive documentation of artists’ works, careers and legacies. Over the years, James has been commissioned to create paintings for venues including Sands Hotel Macao, China; The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas, TX; White Plains, NY; Hilton Americas, Houston; Gensler Architects, Dallas; Avant Garden, Houston; Gensler Architects Houston, and a Royal House in Saudi Arabia. A new installation of works has been installed in its own floor at Solvay America here in Houston. In Houston, Terrell James is represented by the Hiram Butler Gallery.

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