Bryan Graf

Lattice (Ambient) 124

2014

Chromogenic print

This artwork "Untitled" 1987 is an original offset lithograph, with gold and silver leaf addition on wove paper by Canadian artist Terry Leftrook, born 1948. It is hand signed, date...

In James' paintings, he explores how uncertainty can lead to meaning and understanding. How harmony can be experienced even within tension and chaos and how the recognizable can rise out of purely abstract form. In his abstract paintings he responds to these phenomena by creating contemporary icons – works meant to encourage contemplation and meditation. James' more recent works have evolved from the romantic representational ideal into the symbolic, abstract archetype. He comes from a classical background inspired by the great romantic landscape painters such as Turner, Lorrain, Friedrich and Moran, his recent work is more influenced by the work of artists like Klee, Miro, Rothko, Pollock, Riley and Richter. James creates complex abstractions layered in familiarity and veiled in mysteriousness. The unorthodox methods he uses to apply and move oil paint allow him to create compositions that are formally beautiful – infused with tension and drama but also expressive of the spiritual, symbolic, mysterious and eternal. James' work counters...