Artist

James Siena (b. 1957, California) received his BFA from Cornell University, New York, in 1979. Siena's work has been featured in over 55 group exhibitions, including the 2004 Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial. The recipient of multiple honors and awards, Siena lectures and teaches at numerous institutions throughout the United States, including the Cleveland Institute of Art, Ohio (2004); San Francisco Art Institute (2003); School of Visual Arts, New York (2003); Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York (2000); and the Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond (1999, 2002). James Siena currently lives and works in New York City.

"Artist's statements" are inherently contradictory things. I make visual art. It, and not this, is the statement. There was a time when I placed limitations, emphatic ones, on my work.

Procedures were proscribed.

From 1997: "I don't make marks, I make moves. The reality of abstraction is my primary point of engagement. When I make a painting, I respond to parameters, like a visual algorithm".

It is now 2007, and I make marks that, while constituting actions and the following of procedures, contain explicit emotion and impulsive, contrary action. At this middle stage of my life I have become the artist that I am, and the rules, idioms, and other tools are automatic. Hence there is no longer a need to be self-aware.

Indeed, there's no need for an "artist's statement."

—James Siena, November 2007

Figure 1.

Seventeen Combs, 2006, graphite and colored pencil on paper, 8" x 6 1/4", Photo credit: Anthony Cunha, ©James Siena, courtesy Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles
(Cover)

Figure 2.

three personages interpenetrating (Siberian Meadow-Wright Creek Meadow), 2006. graphite and colored pencil on paper. 5 3/4" x 3 11/16". Photo credit: Anthony Cunha. ©James Siena, courtesy Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles
(Page 2)

Figure 3.

Lighthouse Variation (with crosses), 2003. graphite on paper. 16 1/2" x 12 3/4". Photo courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York. ©James Siena, courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York
(Page 13)

Figure 4.

Crabtree Meadow, 2006. graphite and colored pencil on paper. 5 3/4" x 3 11/16". Photo credit: Anthony Cunha. ©James Siena, courtesy Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles
(Page 30)

Figure 5.

Floppy Recursive Combs, 2004. ink on paper. 11" x 8 1/2". Photo credit: Kerry Ryan McFate/courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York. ©James Siena, courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York
(Page 47)

Figure 6.

Two Recursive Combs (Angled), 2003. graphite on paper. 16 1/2" x 12 3/4". Photo courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York. ©James Siena, courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York
(Page 63)

Figure 7.

Non-Slice Variation, 2004–2005. graphite on paper. 8 1/8" x 5 3/8". Photo credit: Anthony Cunha. ©James Siena, courtesy Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles
(Page 85)

Figure 8.

Untitled (Fuzzy Line), 2006. graphite on paper. 5 1/2" x 3 1/4". Photo credit: Anthony Cunha. ©James Siena, courtesy Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles
(Page 97)

Figure 9.

Three Personages, Interpenetrating, 2007, enamel on aluminum, 19 1/4" x 15 1/8", Photo credit: Joerg Lohse/PaceWildenstein, New York, ©James Siena, courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York
(Back Cover)