Jamie Nares(formerlyJames Nares;born 1953 inLondon,England[1]) is a Britishtransgender womanartist living and working in New York City since 1974. Nares makes paintings and films (most notably theno wavefilmRome 78); played guitar in theno wavegroupsJames Chance and the Contortionsand theDel-Byzanteens(the latter also includingJim Jarmusch); and was a founding member ofColab.[2]
Early life and art education
editNares attended the Chelsea Art School in London from 1972 to 1973. She later studied at theSchool of Visual Artsin New York from 1974 to 1976.
Painting
editNares is best known as acontemporary artpainter. Her method involves repeated strokes that eventually create a precise representation.
She is known for employing single but intricate gestural brush strokes in most of her works.Grace Glueck,New York Timesart critic, described the effect of Nares's paintings as a combination of Japanesecalligraphyand the 1960s cartoon works ofRoy Lichtenstein.[3]These techniques have been compared to those of theAction Paintersas well asAbstract Expressionists.[4][5]Her work is exhibited in various museums in the United States: such as theMuseum of Modern Artin New York, theAlbright-Knox Art Galleryin Buffalo, NY, and theWhitney Museum of American Artin New York. Some of her solo exhibitions include 1976: Films and Other Works atPaul KasminGallery, in New York in 2012, and Mixed Use, Manhattan: Photography and Related Practices 1970s to the present in 2010 at theMuseo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofiain Madrid, Spain.
Nares's other solo exhibitions include New Paintings in 2004 at the Hamiltons Gallery in London and the New Paintings andChronophotographsexhibition in 2005 at the Goss Gallery inDallas.Her works were also featured in the Painting and Sculpture exhibition at theLehmann Maupin galleryin New York City in 2010.
Rizzolipublished amonographdedicated to Nares's works in 2013.
When speaking on her work, Nares once stated:
I try to embody the nature and combine the forms—it's like one and one making three—to expose a metaphor of some kind. It's searching for metaphors, for likeness, like a breeding ground. It seems to me, that's how a language develops. Everything breeds through metaphors.[6]
Video & film
editIn the mid-1970s, Nares made a series of short sculptural-relatedminimal artfilms. In 1978, she released ano wave82-minute color Super-8 film entitledRome 78,[7]her only venture into feature-length, plot-driven film. The narrative is about the Roman emperorCaligulanow set in a shabby 1978East Villageapartment.[8]As such, it proposes ananalogybetween ancient Rome and modern America as cultural empires.[9]Despite its large cast in period costumes, the work is never made out to be a serious undertaking, with actors who interject scenes with self-conscious laughter, and deliver seemingly improvised lines with over the top bravado. The work featuresNo Wave CinemaregularLydia LunchofTeenage Jesus and the Jerksalong with artist David McDermott ofMcDermott & McGoughasCaligula,James Chance,John Lurie,Eric Mitchellas a Roman general,Judy Rifka,Jim Sutcliffe,Lance Loud,Mitch Corber,Patti Astor,Anya Phillipsas theQueen of ShebaandKristian Hoffman,among others.[10]
Nares' 2012 video "Street" (with a score composed byThurston Moore), later acquired by theNational Gallery of Art,debuted at theWadsworth Atheneumand depicted street scenes in Manhattan.[11][12]The video was filmed with a Phantom Flex camera on the back of a sport utility vehicle, and featured the daily routines of pedestrians, tourists, and even pigeons in the city, as well as more known figures such as theNaked Cowboy.In 2013, "Street" was also exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art alongside 77 works from the museum's collections, including drawings by Francisco Goya.[13][14]
Selected solo exhibitions
edit- 2019:Nares: Moves,Baker/Rowland Gallires,Milwaukee Art Museum,Milwaukee, WI
- 2013:Street,Reinberger Galleries,Cleveland Institute of Art,Cleveland, OH
- 2013:Road Paint,Paul Kasmin Gallery,New York, NY
- 2013:Street,Cinemarfa Film Festival, Marfa, TX
- 2013:Street,Metropolitan Museum of Art,New York, NY
- 2012:New Media Series – James Nares: Street,St. Louis Art Museum,St. Louis, MO
- 2012:Street,Wadsworth Atheneum,Hartford, CT
- 2012:James Nares, 1976: Films and Other Works,Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY
- 2011: Cinemarfa Film festival, Marfa, TX
- 2011:The Films of James Nares,IFC Center,New York, NY
- 2010:New Paintings and a Film,Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
- 2010:James Nares at the Armory Show,Paintings and Video, The Armory Show, Paul Kasmin Gallery, Pier 94, New York, NY
- 2009:James Nares, New Paintings, New Video: Element Number One,Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY
- 2009:James Nares,Galleria Arnes Y Roepke, Madrid, ES
- 2008: Galerie Stefan Roepke, Cologne, DE
- 2008: Sebastian Guinness Gallery, Dublin, IE
- 2008:James Nares: Motion Pictures(film retrospective),Anthology Film Archives,New York, NY
- 2007: Galerie Stefan Roepke, Cologne, DE
- 2007: Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
- 2005:New Paintings and Chronophotographs,Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY
- 2005: Goss Gallery, Dallas, TX
Filmography
edit- 2011:Street(61 min, HD video)
- 2010:Thread(3.5 minutes, HD video)
- 2010:To Make A Prairie(12.5 mins, 16mm)
- 2009:Element Number One(30 mins, HD video)
- 2008:With God On Our Side(8 mins, HD video)
- 2007:Globe(43 min, HD video)
- 2007:Paper Factory(8 min, video)
- 2007:Drip(2 min, video)
- 2007:Drop(4 min, HD Video)
- 2007:Primary Function(2 min, HD video)
- 1998:Cloth(3 min, 16mm, silent)
- 1998:Punch(2 min, 16mm, silent)
- 1998:Giotto Circle #2(3.5 min, Hi-8 video)
- 1991:Hammered(2 min, video)
- 1991:The Lighthouse(30 min, video)
- 1991:Weather Bed(3 min, video)
- 1991:Cornfield(8.5 min, video)
- 1991:Piano(8.5 min, video)
- 1990:Glove(1.5 min, Hi-8 video)
- 1990:Lens(2.5 min, Hi-8 video)
- 1987:Studio Tape(45 min, Hi-8 video)
- 1982:Waiting For The Wind(7.5 min, Super8)
- 1980:No Japs At My Funeral(60 min, video)
- 1978:Rome '78(75 min, Super8-to-16mm.)
- 1977:TV Faces(6 min, Super8-to-16mm)
- 1977:Suicide? No, Murder(30 min, Super8-to-16mm)
- 1976:Game(3 min, video)
- 1976:Block(3 min, Super8-to-16mm, silent)
- 1976:Giotto Circle #1(3 min, Super8-to-16mm, silent)
- 1976:Poles(2 min, video)
- 1976:Pendulum(17 min, Super8-to-16mm)
- 1976:Studio Pendulum(7 min, Super8-to-16mm)
- 1976:First Pendulum(5 min, Super8-to-16mm)
- 1976:Steel Rod(5 min, Super8-to-16mm, silent)
- 1976:Arm And Hammer(3.5 min, Super8-to-16mm, silent)
- 1976:Ramp(3 min, Super8-to-16mm)
- 1976:Twister(2 min, Super8-to-16mm, silent)
- 1975:Handnotes #2(5 min, video, silent)
- 1975:Roof(12 min, 1/2 "video)
References
edit- ^"James Nares comes out as trans woman, in Philippe de Montebello Curates at Park Avenue Armory, and More".Art News.16 July 2019.
- ^Hager, Steve (1986).Art After Midnight: The East Village Scene.St. Matins Press. p. 26.
- ^[1]James Nares on Swissre
- ^Daniel, Gillian (1 March 2014). "Fluid Motion".Elephant Magazine(18): 112–121 – via Frame Publishers.
- ^O'Brien, Glenn (23 November 2008)."James Nares".Interview Magazine.Retrieved8 July2024.
- ^Sussler, Betsy (Spring 1989)."Interview with James Nares".BOMB Magazine.Archived fromthe originalon 14 May 2013.Retrieved15 May2013.
- ^Boch, Richard (2017).The Mudd Club.Port Townsend, WA:Feral House.p. 81.ISBN978-1-62731-051-2.OCLC972429558.
- ^Halter, Ed (13 May 2008)."James Nares's Downtown Empire Strikes Back".The Village Voice.Archived fromthe originalon 8 July 2013.Retrieved8 July2024.
- ^Masters, Marc (2007).No Wave.London: Black Dog Publishing. pp. 148–149.
- ^"Rebellion of the quiet Retrospective of James Nares, No Wave's subtlest filmmaker".Archived fromthe originalon 1 September 2013.Retrieved14 June2013.
- ^Schwendener, Martha (10 August 2013)."A Galloping City Captured in Slow Motion".The New York Times.
- ^Wilk, Deborah (September 2014). "James Nares".Modern Painters.26(8): 40–41 – via Art & Architecture Source.
- ^Viveros-Fauné, Christian (27 March 2013)."Taking it Slow at the Met's Street".The Village Voice.Archived fromthe originalon 18 October 2013.Retrieved8 July2024.
- ^Camhi, Leslie (5 March 2013)."Urban Legends: James Nares Premieres Street at the Met Museum".Vogue Magazine.Archived fromthe originalon 27 February 2014.Retrieved8 July2024.
Further reading
edit- Carlo McCormick(2006).The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene, 1974–1984.Princeton University Press.
- Alan W. Moore;Marc Miller, eds. (1985).ABC No RioDinero: The Story of a Lower East Side Art Gallery.New York: ABC No Rio with Collaborative Projects.
