James Perrin

“ I approach painting as a self-contained language system using polysemic image suggestions, creating fluctuating events of pareidolia within the viewer’s consciousness. I am interested in painting as a mode of communication that transverses time, cultures, and fixed languages - as a sensory-communicative experience between artist and viewer. ”

James Perrin’s abstract oil paintings contain the cosmic violence of a supernova and the complex beauty of the ever-expanding universe. Perrin often creates his own pigments from the earth and other natural materials and undertakes an extensive process of layering bright colors and textures—typically against a black background. In Perrin’s words, “If a work can embody a form of beauty as well as a form of ugliness, a form of angst as well as a form of calm, a form of chaos as well as one of order, if it can hold the contradictions that accompany life, it can affect the viewers’ experience to be one of holistic conversation within themselves based on areas of universal human experience”.

James Perrin received his M.F.A. in painting from Boston University and his B.F.A. from Kansas City Art Institute. His paintings have been featured in solo and group exhibitions throughout the U.S., as well as in Venice, Italy. His work was recently included in Chaos and Awe: Painting for the 21st Century at the Frist Art Museum and Chrysler Museum of Art. His work is currently on view at the South Bend Museum of Art and Laguardia Community College in Long Island City. He is slated to have a solo exhibition at Hope University in Holland MI. In 2015, he was granted the prestigious Joan Mitchell Award.