Biography

James English Leary (b.1982 in Chicago, US) in an artist and filmmaker living and working in New York City. 

 

The paintings of James English Leary pit figuration against abstraction invoking metaphors that nurse (and satirize) camp-psychological states in the viewer. Rather than “painting the paintings” Leary constructs them out of painting’s component parts (stretcher, fabric, color, in that order) often employing a shaped substrate. The resulting image-objects and their buoyant overtures towards a “language” humorously engages the problems of how to “read” a painting and conjure the art experience as a slapstick rorschach, a drama of legibility, which hinges on the impossibility of making a shape that doesn’t eventually refer back to something of this world.

 

Recent solo shows include: 'James English Leary | Small Fishes Swim Around Inside of Large Fishes', Galerie Kandlhofer, Vienna, 2019; 'Another Family Romance', Galerie Kandlhofer, Vienna, 2018; 'Hoi Polloi', Nathalie Karg Gallery, New York, 2018; 'Half a Mississippi Steamboat', Andersen's, Copenhagen, 2018; 'The Bursting Grape', Galerie Kandlhofer, Vienna, 2017.

 

Recent group shows include: 'Orphans of Painting II', Ethan Cohen Beacon NY, New York, 2019; 'Flat Out: Drawings, 2000–2019', Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, 2019; 'André Azevedo & James English Leary', SIM Galeria, Curitiba, 2017

 

Leary was a recipient of a 2015 Tiffany Foundation Award and was a resident of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in Captiva, Florida. He is an adjunct professor at The Cooper Union in New York City and a founding member of The Bruce High Quality Foundation and the Bruce High Quality Foundation University, a free arts university operating in New York City. The Foundation’s works have been included in Greater New York at MOMA Ps1, The 2010 Whitney Biennial and The Sundance Film Festival.

Exhibitions
Works
  • Triple Motherfucker (Boots)
    James English Leary
    Triple Motherfucker (Boots), 2018
    Diptych
    Acrylic on canvas and shaped canvas
    162.6 x 203.2 cm
    64 x 80 in
  • "The Bursting Grape", Installation View No. 01
    James English Leary
    "The Bursting Grape", Installation View No. 01, 2017
  • Double Infinity
    James English Leary
    Double Infinity, 2016
    Acrylic on Shaped Canvas
    177.8 x 132.1 cm
    70 x 52 in
  • Lady Chatterley´s Lover´s Lovers (Red)
    James English Leary
    Lady Chatterley´s Lover´s Lovers (Red), 2016
    Acrylic and paper on canvas
    182.9 x 167.6 cm
    72 x 66 in
  • Gripping, Grasping and Understanding
    James English Leary
    Gripping, Grasping and Understanding, 2015
    Stack of 9 paintings, each one acrylic on shaped canvas
    266.7 x 236.2 x 45.7 cm
    105 x 93 x 18 in
  • Hygiene
    James English Leary
    Hygiene, 2015
    Acrylic on Canvas and Linen over joined panels
    170.2 x 188 cm
    67 x 74 in
  • Smoked Fruit
    James English Leary
    Smoked Fruit, 2015
    Tryptic, Acrylic on shaped canvases
    152.4 x 396.2 cm in overall
    60 x 156 in
    Courtesy: Vito Schnabel Gallery
  • Triple Motherfucker (1 of 3)
    James English Leary
    Triple Motherfucker (1 of 3), 2015
    Diptych, Acrylic on canvas
    203.2 x 304.8 cm
    80 x 120 in
  • Natural Beauty
    James English Leary
    Natural Beauty , 2014
    Acrylic on shaped Canvas
    167.6 x 154.9 cm
    66 x 61 in
Video
Installation shots
Publications
Press