AL’S OFFICE
JAMES PREZ
On view: March 17 - April 22, 2022
View Exhibition
“A Tantra Painting is singularly created as an ephemeral symbolic representation, a vehicle, a kind of throw-away image that offers an alternative form of consciousness for those with patience, and, those willing to devote the time. Unlike fine artworks or decorative objects, these small scale works on paper are not intended to be admired for their technique, content, or aesthetic beauty. Think of these images as visual devices that function as a type of yoga, with the associative premise that emptiness is full. Or as cryptograms of the self. It’s been said by many that when attention is directed exclusively and long upon a single image, focused absorption can promote an emptying out of consciousness where the dualities of the individual and the universe, self and not self, reason and feeling can dissolve, leading one to an enlightened state of awareness. Yet more succinctly, ‘Illuminating those entangled in the coils of their own masking delusions.’”
"I work as if I am in great demand" - James Prez
Living & working in Brooklyn, NY since 1995
WAITING ROOM
JAMES PREZ | PLAY BALL!
January 10th - February 16th, 2019
James Prez ’s Waiting Room exhibition “PLAY BALL!” features a selection of mixed media paintings and drawings composed on torn book covers. Prez’s imagery consists of silhouetted baseball players loosely captured in various states of play. Closely installed in a delightfully jaunty line up that carries the viewer around the space, these pieces coincide with Prez’s humble renderings of assorted plant life, each of which contains a hand-scrawled title or descriptor as though culled from an encyclopedic field guide.
James Prez was born & raised in Pennsylvania and received his MFA from the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, NY. He has shown at the Center for Book Arts, DUMBO Arts Center and Printed Matter, Inc among other venues. Prez’s work can be found in major museums and artist’s book collections throughout the world including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Internationale Bibliothèque in Paris, and the National Gallery of Canada. Drawing inspiration from the many places he has called home, Prez has lived in Denver, CO, San Diego, CA, Mexico, Jamaica, Tallahassee, FL, Santa Fe, NM & Port au Prince, Haiti. He currently works and resides in Brooklyn, NY.