MAP-IFY
JAMES BAILEY
May 9th - July 6t, 2019
My work examines the landscape and our relation to it via the concept of maps/mapping as both objects and as acts. Exploring the systems and conventions of depicting/charting/categorizing and interpreting our environment and experiences. My work re-presents my data through my own lens.
Through these investigations of the systems and conventions of depicting our surroundings and examining how we interact to/with/against our environment. I utilize the overlay of the grid as a system for organizing our world and perceptions of movement through the land. I further regard the overlay of information included within that system and the overlay of our sensibilities, manipulations and fabrications of that information.
Maps construct the world they don’t reproduce it. They allow us to show the landscape without depicting it, like graphic notations of remembered experience.
Photos: Evan Beasley
About James Bailey:
James Bailey was born in New Jersey, and grew up in Minneapolis, MN. He earned his B.F.A. from the University of Minnesota and his M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is currently an artist and Professor in the School of Art at The University of Montana. In 1998 he established Matrix Press, the publishing component of the print program, which brings in nationally recognized artists to collaborate in the production of limited edition prints and he is also one of the co-founders for the Annual Day of the Dead Steamroller Print Project which recently completed its seventeenth year.
As an artist, James continues his research into both traditional and experimental approaches in printmaking. James has exhibited his work nationally and internationally in over 300 exhibitions and national print portfolios across 35 states as well as Estonia, France, China, Australia, Portugal, Wales, New Zealand and Canada. His work can be found in numerous public and private collections including those of the Walker Art Center, New York Public Library, Jundt Art Museum, Boise Art Museum, Mesa Arts Center, Hillard University Art Museum and Sioux City Arts Center among others. James was interviewed for the full length documentary film on printmaking titled Midwest Matrix and he serves on the board for the Printmaking Legacy Project.
““Nature is, socialized….reorganized….. (and) made into a material manifestation of social structure”
“The natural environment is transformed into culturally meaningful phenomena and then is viewed from the perspective of these cultural definitions.””
