Articles by Damien James

A willing participant at EMPAC’s “Uncertain Spectator”

by Damien James | Feb 11, 2011

A willing participant at EMPAC’s “Uncertain Spectator”

by Damien James | Feb 11, 2011

No matter how many times I fly, there are several minutes while tons of metal lift dozens or hundreds of bodies into the air that I can’t help but think …

Connecting – Part 6: Postscript and Postmortem

by Damien James | Dec 17, 2010

Connecting – Part 6: Postscript and Postmortem

by Damien James | Dec 17, 2010

After exhibiting at The Artist Project in 2008, Pamela Johnson’s American Still Life series began getting attention. Pepperdine University’s Weisman Museum of Art, Adler & Co. Gallery, and the San …

Connecting – Part 5: Effortless

by Damien James | Dec 15, 2010

Connecting – Part 5: Effortless

by Damien James | Dec 15, 2010

During the film My Kid Could Paint That (2007, Sony Pictures), New York Times chief art critic Michael Kimmelman said: I think the beauty of art is that it is …

Connecting – Part 4: All spin of one kind or another

by Damien James | Dec 13, 2010

Connecting – Part 4: All spin of one kind or another

by Damien James | Dec 13, 2010

Errol Morris said at a Chicago Humanities Festival Q&A in 2006, on the iconography of Abu Ghraib, that human stupidity is one of the only things he really believes in, …

Connecting – Part 3: Ceci n’est pas une Twinkie

by Damien James | Dec 10, 2010

Connecting – Part 3: Ceci n’est pas une Twinkie

by Damien James | Dec 10, 2010

I asked Pamela Johnson about other people who had encountered the massive Girl Scout cookies or cheese and cracker Handi Snacks™, eager to know how they were received and processed …

Connecting – Part 2: Useful Junk

by Damien James | Dec 8, 2010

Connecting – Part 2: Useful Junk

by Damien James | Dec 8, 2010

Sometime in September of 2006, I came across the paintings of Pamela Michelle Johnson, vaguely oppressive canvases dominated by clouds of slate and steel gray, foregrounds indistinguishable from back, and expanses …

Connecting – Part 1: Art as Transportation

by Damien James | Dec 6, 2010

Connecting – Part 1: Art as Transportation

by Damien James | Dec 6, 2010

There have been times in my short life when I’ve had the good fortune to witness something new and amazing, from births to deaths and the exhausting amount of possibilities …