San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts

Assemblage & Collage

January 29 - April 5, 2009

Dallas artist James Michael Starr spends time in antique stores, second hand shops and yard sales seeking interesting objects, no longer used for their original intent. From this accumulation of stuff he scavenges elements and combines them together with other elements and out of this arranging and re-arranging he creates his own artwork. Beautiful and lyrical, James Michael Starr’s assemblages explore philosophic and humanistic endeavors and give the viewer hours of reflection and introspection. The artist currently is showing in galleries around the U.S. His work was recognized in each of the last four Critic’s Choice Exhibitions of the Dallas Center for Contemporary Art. In 2001 he was one of 14 artists representing the U.S. in the International Exhibition of Contemporary Collage in Paris France and in 2004 his work was included in Assemblage 100 which toured New Zealand. "Mem." Globe, brass ball, terra cotta ball, steel bracket, cord, 40" x 13 " x 18"

The artist, James Michael Starr, will attend the Opening Reception and on Friday, January 30 at 12 noon at the art museum he will lead a Gallery Talk about his exhibition.

This site specific installation of locally-gathered found objects by
James Michael Starr hangs like a meteor shower high above the
exhibition of his sculpture and collages in Gallery One. It can be
viewed up close from the second-floor balcony.
"Happy Canyon" (2009) Mesquite branches and glass globe lamp shades.
Dimensions variable, approximately 48 x 96 x 72 inches, as installed.

Artist’s Statement

I am fascinated by the contradictions that my own art continually brings up before my eyes. There is that between the beauty I see in these materials and the fact that they are largely devalued: not only the tarnished metal in my sculpture, gathered from scrap metal yards, but also the foxed book pages in my collages, purchased in secondhand bookstores; all were on the final leg of their journey to destruction. There is the contradiction between the sombre, three-dimensional forms actually on display and the whimsical, Looney Tunes-like, two-dimensional images that first impressed themselves on my mind. And there is the contradiction between my acculturated desire to make something of significance and value and my compulsion to follow the uncontrollable, unpredictable path my art continues to lead me down.

James Michael Starr, January 2009