Artist Statement
My interdisciplinary studio practice explores mythic motifs and images rooted in the personal and the everyday. Whether through sculpture, painting, moving images, or books, my work is grounded in illustration and the image as illumination. The works take on the form of handmade ceramics, mixed-media paintings, videos, animations, artist books, and are presented in exhibitions, screenings, book fairs, and workshops. Each work bridges inner and outer worlds.
An amalgam of disparate processes, materials, and traditions reflects a fragmented experience, as well as a worldbuilding of personal mythologies and speculative fictions. It is a vocabulary synthesized from lived experience and remnants of dominant cultures, languages, and traditions. Using mimicry as an entry point, the works undermine conventions to reveal a subterranean construction of identity. Together the works embody an individual thread in a collective memory.
Bio
James Bascara is a multidisciplinary artist, animation filmmaker, and illustrator based in New York City. His works engage with painting, animation, ceramics, and book making, and have been exhibited internationally, with paintings and sculptures shown in exhibitions and events at EFA Project Space (New York, NY), Pioneer Works (Brooklyn, NY), and Blanc Gallery (Quezon City, PH); animations and videos presented at MoMA PS1 (Queens, NY), Slamdance Film Festival (Park City, UT, US), Centre Pompidou (Paris, FR), Fest Anča (Zilina, SK), and Cooperativ Werkraum (Berlin, DE); and book works can be found at Printed Matter and in the collections of the New York Public Library Print Collection and the Center for Book Arts.
Contact
Email: jbascara [@] gmail.com
Links
Instagram: @james.bascara
Vimeo: vimeo.com/jamesbascara