Contact - , 612-702-5849,
883 Linwood Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55105
I begin my digital media prints by hand drawing on an iPad. It's the same process as finger painting on a glass surface. I use my fingertips and avoid the stylus. I build layers of color, lines, shapes, and texture through a fluid, organic, multi-step process. I use the expressive potential of painting in collaboration with digital media. My original visual impulse moves through digital spaces, adding and subtracting along the way, forming and reforming until the final painterly/unpainterly image emerges on canvas, paper, fabric, or projected.
Fish, worms, bodies, creatures, and other personal iconography are visible in some of my work. They reveal narratives intended to trigger the imagination. My colors are rich and varied. My shapes, colors, and mark making are intuitive. Some of my work is abstract, some semi-abstract. I hope people will engage with my images, or be challenged by them, or simply embrace the moment of seeing something new.
Whether I finish on canvas, paper, fabric or projected, the final manifestation is the intended, original work. These are not giclée, or photographs of paintings, or reproductions of any kind. My work has an authentic presence that defies categorization.
James Byrne
2020 Exhibitions
Zacheta-National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Early American Video Art, February - April, 2020
Vine Arts Center, Minneapolis, Art Inspired by Music, group show, February 2020
Miami Dade College Museum of Art and Design, Miami, November 2020
Jimmy Wilson Gallery, Minneapolis, Guest Artist
2019 Exhibitions
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, The Body Electric, group show, through February 2020
Rogue Buddha Gallery, Minneapolis, Mourning Glory, group show, November 2019
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, The Body Electric, group show
2019 Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival, Made in Minnesota Short Films
James earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Video Art from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and completed additional graduate study at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in New York. He has a Bachelor of Elected Studies from the University of Minnesota.