New York artist's unique, 'buried' artworks on display at COUNTY gallery in Palm Beach
Most artists go to great lengths to prevent exposure of their work to the damaging elements of rain, sand, salt air and dirt, but artist James Perkins actually seeks out these elements to enhance and dictate the direction of his work. He even goes so far as to bury his paintings in the sand at the beach or other locations. His works are on display for the first time in Palm Beach, in an exhibit titled "Dreams of Transcendence" at COUNTY gallery through May 6.
The mixed-media wall reliefs imprinted with the markings of sun, sand, salt, wind, wood and water were made in Fire Island, New York, where he lives part time. Perkins employs a process he developed in 2016 to explore the beauty and experience of “weathering the vicissitudes of life.”
Taking up to two years to complete a single work, Perkins creates the “paintings” using the forces of nature to mark time and create characteristic gestures, including stripes down the main viewing plane reminiscent of abstract expressionist artist Barnette Newman and also Mark Rothko-like color fields.
In addition, the artworks display evidence of the canvas being exposed to moving water, pollen, leaves, sand or even the roots of plants still clinging to the surfaces.
The series creates for the viewer an experience that Perkins describes as “allowing one to witness a transformation of the material and meetings between the sky and the work.”
Perkins, who lives and works in New York City and Fire Island on Long Island, received a bachelor of arts in chemistry from Yale University and a master’s degree in photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York. His work includes art installations, sculpture, painting, photography and film. He has exhibited at Metro Pictures in New York, Hannah Traore Gallery, NYU The Institute of Fine Arts and MANA Contemporary in Miami.
As incongruous as it may seem that a chemistry major from Yale would become a successful working artist, it was a perfect segue for Perkins — as he came to his current process wondering, “Can I invent a new way to make a painting or a sculpture?"
He recalls: "It kind of just started as a joke, thinking I’ll bury a painting. But I really always wanted to be an inventor, so when I was at the beach thinking about my favorite painters who bring light and space to their work, I just started playing with these ideas of all the things I love about light and space and how that plays with perception.”
He challenges the concept of seriality with his work, joining humans with nature, unbound by self-identity and interconnected by one artistic vision. COUNTY, which specializes in contemporary works by emerging and mid-career artists, is showing 11 works of various sizes.
“COUNTY looks for artists that are involved in new mediums and that often blur the lines between conceptual and object and James’ practice fits that perfectly,” said gallery Director Dalton Freed. “James’ work is lush and has great abstract substance, and when you stand in front of it you are simply awed by the fineness of the variations that time and random weather events reflect in the organic material. They have a very strong and subtle presence.”
Perkins invented this artistic process by starting with pieces of raw silk textiles from various sources around the world. He stretches them over weather-treated 2-by-4s, then buries them. After digging them up from their long exposure to the Earth's elements, he takes them apart and re-stretches them on custom, lighter-weight frames with the same dimensions as the raw wood in which they were buried.
His chemistry background has been crucial to the process, which uses both the tumultuous Atlantic Ocean side of Fire Island, with its more severe weather conditions, and the calmer bay side that gets less impact from erosion, storms and winds.
“I’m still doing research on my own, whether it was in the chemistry lab or with the art I am creating,” Perkins says.
Because he invented the method and has been using it for a while, he says he knows what to expect when he uncovers a canvas. “It is never a surprise to me how a piece is going to look when I dig it up after a long time. ... It’s as if nature is my paintbrush. There is something repeatable in nature, it isn’t random or unpredictable to me. It took a lot of years to get to a gesture that is my own.”
And the pieces reflect this unique marriage of art and science.
“Aging is a natural process, and that has become a big theme for me" he says. "The beauty that comes from the aging process in humans is just now being more respected and recognized and talked about. So, there might be a little tear in the painting that others would see as a defect, but I just consider that part of the beauty.
"My work isn’t about nature, it literally is nature. I always say my work is successful if it drew your attention back to nature in some way, and that’s really the point. If you were to leave my works outside for longer even beyond how long I am leaving them outdoors, they begin to disintegrate, and they go back to the earth. And so there is this beauty to me of working with the land that is an important part of what my work is about.”
Perkins recently did an installation in Napa Valley and has plans next for a project in Reykjavik, Iceland.
“The initial idea I had was this notion that everyone had this horizon and the thought being that wherever anyone is in the world, and whatever station of their life, there is a horizon ahead of them, and I find that really optimistic. We get another day to try again."
If you go
What: "James Perkins, Dreams of Transcendence"
Where: COUNTY gallery, 375 S. County Road
When: Through May 6. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; Sunday by appointment
Info: 305-713-7588, www.county.gallery
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: COUNTY gallery in Palm Beach showing works created via artist's unique process
