Michael James

The tensions that exist between the natural and the built environments are at the heart of much of my work. Equally important is the notion of the metaphysical dimension of those environmental realities that we engage with on a daily basis. I'm interested in that which is essential and immaterial. I associate dissociated forms and figures, textures and scales, to provoke a thoughtful consideration of the ability we humans have to synthesize dissonant visual, aural and tactile stimuli and make sense of their often unlikely and uncoordinated juxtaposition. I hope the viewer will acknowledge the abstract life of this evidence and the way that we can imbue form with poetic or expressive resonance.

Bio

Michael James lives and maintains his studio in Lincoln, Nebraska. The year 2020 marks his retirement from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he was a Professor and  Department Chair in Textiles, Merchandising & Fashion Design, College of Education and Human Sciences.  James earned his MFA degree in Painting and Printmaking from the Rochester (NY) Institute of Technology, and his BFA in Painting from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.

A nationally recognized leader in quilt surface design, James has pioneered developments in fiber arts for over 40 years. A Fellow of the American Craft Council, James' work is included in numerous collections including the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian in Washington DC, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City, the Baltimore Art Museum, the Indianapolis Art Museum, the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, VT, and the Newark Museum in New Jersey.

James is the past receipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Fellowships, and he was named a Fellow of the American Craft Council in 2001. In 2015, the Renwick Alliance awarded its Master of the Medium Award in textiles for lifetime accomplishment.