James Perrin

(b. 1975) lives in Nashville
The Ambassadors, 2006
oil on canvas, 56 x 72 inches, 2015.65.8

Perrin received his B.F.A in Painting from Kansas City Art Institute and his M.F.A. in painting from Boston University.  His work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions in Nashville and Memphis, as well as nationally in Austin, Texas; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Boston, Massachusetts; and Kansas City, Missouri.  In 2014 his work was in included in the exhibition Abstractometry at the Frist Center for Visual Arts in Nashville.  Perrin has also had a solo exhibition in Venice Italy.  His work is included in collections in Nashville, Boston, and Rome Italy.  In 2015 Perrin received a Joan Mitchell Award.

My paintings can be described as a combination of several methods of painting, incorporating different ideas, frameworks, and strategies. I consider myself a formalist first and foremost; I am less interested in ideas and more interested in exploring methods of creativity in order to achieve new visual languages and suggestions.  I allow my creative process to be intuitive and non-linear. I focus on the expressiveness and possibilities contained in the materials of paint and pictorial construction, consenting to the paintings becoming self-contained realities. – Perrin