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CV
James Herman

  1. Something
  2. Termite Drawings
  3. Schmoo Store
  4. Even A Blind Man Knows When The Sun Is Shining
  5. Glass Island Studio 
  6. Dose Trump
  7. Earth Pizza




(b. Denver, CO., 1985) James is an artist working between sculpture, painting, and printmaking. Herman’s painted works include process-based, abstract plywood pieces, functioning alongside a critical homesteading practice. Literally and figuratively meditating on processes of repetitive labor, Herman offers a utopian formal and ecological perspective by foregrounding off-the-grid building methods, repurposed materials, and a simultaneously thoughtful and cheeky modernist referentiality. Across media, his works propagate intentional domestic practices through piecemeal, communal, revelation.
Mark

5. Glass Island Studio



Dwelling, 2017
plywood, redwood, found eucalyptus wood, bamboo, polycarbonate, metal roofing, glass, sink hardware, soil.
dimensions variable

    The works featured in Glass Island Studio focus on the ways in which we inhabit space and the natural environment. Drawing inspiration from craft-based, vernacular architecture and modernism, Herman uses found materials to create functional spaces. His multidisciplinary practice utilizes nature play, formalism, and the assemblage of found and ready-made materials to create architectural and sculptural works. Herman’s processes, materials, and language explore a transformative and investigative way of existing that are applicable to both the worlds of sculptural art and of formal architectural design.

Shower Hour, 2017 (detail)

    A strong thread running throughout Herman’s work is an innate value of labor. His Glass Island Studio, in the hills of east Los Angeles, is an ongoing investigative approach to accessible, hands-on construction that emphasizes ingenuity, sustainability and independence. Herman’s reliance on found materials, and his ability to live and create work from within a building of his own construction, informs the ease and accessibility of the works’ material process in Glass Island Studio.


Dwelling, 2017
plywood, redwood, found eucalyptus wood, bamboo, polycarbonate, metal roofing, glass, sink hardware, soil.
dimensions variable

    Many components of his practice exist in a way that doesn’t destroy their innate value or formal function. This modularity and expandability strengthens the works’ resolve to exist in ways that are both sustainable and functional while maintaining sculptural integrity.








Dwelling, 2017 (detail)


Shower Tower, 2017 (detail)

Shower Tower, 2017
redwood, cement, mosaic, plumbing
226.7 x 121.9 x 80 cm
89 1/4 x 48 x 31 1/2 in

Walkabout, 2017
plywood, found wood, bottle cap, cement, glass
94 x 88.9 cm
37 x 35 in
Mark