Biography
James Drake (b. Lubbock, Texas, 1946) is an interdisciplinary artist currently working in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His drawings, video, sculpture, photography, printmaking and installations, investigate the human condition, emotions, and systems of communication, oftentimes through allegory to underscore the cyclical nature of history. Drake received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and Master of Fine Arts degree from the Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles, California. He is the recipient of numerous awards, which include a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts Grants, and a Nancy Graves Award for Visual Arts. In 2007 his work was featured at the 52nd International Venice Biennale, Think With the Senses, Feel With the Mind: Art in the Present Tense, curated by Robert Storr, and in 2000 his work was featured in the Whitney Biennial. Drake’s work can be seen in many permanent collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Blanton Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, San Antonio Museum of Art, Art Museum of South Texas, El Paso Museum of Art, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Mexico Museum of Art, The Lannan Foundation, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (La Jolla), Whitney Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Santa Fe Institute, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Six monographs have been published on Drake: Que Linda La Brisa, University of Washington Press, 2000; James Drake, University of Texas Press, 2008); James Drake: Red Drawings & White Cut-Outs, Radius Books, 2011; James Drake Salon of A Thousand Souls, New Mexico Museum of Art, 2012; 1242 James Drake: Anatomy of Drawing and Space (Brain Trash), Radius Books and Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, 2014 and James Drake Tongue-Cut Sparrows, Radius Books, 2023.
James Drake
Photo by Colleen Drake.
James Drake (b. Lubbock, Texas, 1946) is an interdisciplinary artist currently working in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His drawings, video, sculpture, photography, printmaking and installations, investigate the human condition, emotions, and systems of communication, oftentimes through allegory to underscore the cyclical nature of history. Drake received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and Master of Fine Arts degree from the Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles, California. He is the recipient of numerous awards, which include a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts Grants, and a Nancy Graves Award for Visual Arts. In 2007 his work was featured at the 52nd International Venice Biennale, Think With the Senses, Feel With the Mind: Art in the Present Tense, curated by Robert Storr, and in 2000 his work was featured in the Whitney Biennial. Drake’s work can be seen in many permanent collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Blanton Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, San Antonio Museum of Art, Art Museum of South Texas, El Paso Museum of Art, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Mexico Museum of Art, The Lannan Foundation, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (La Jolla), Whitney Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Santa Fe Institute, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Six monographs have been published on Drake: Que Linda La Brisa, University of Washington Press, 2000; James Drake, University of Texas Press, 2008); James Drake: Red Drawings & White Cut-Outs, Radius Books, 2011; James Drake Salon of A Thousand Souls, New Mexico Museum of Art, 2012; 1242 James Drake: Anatomy of Drawing and Space (Brain Trash), Radius Books and Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, 2014 and James Drake Tongue-Cut Sparrows, Radius Books, 2023.
Education
MFA, Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles, California
BFA, Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles, California
Selected Collections
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth, Richmond, Virginia
Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas
Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama
Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York
The Henry Buhl Foundation, New York, New York
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas
Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado
El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas
Federal Reserve Board Art Gallery, Dallas, Texas
Federal Reserve Board Art Gallery, Washington DC
Frost Bank, San Antonio, Texas
Hallmark Cards Art Collection, Kansas City, Missouri
Lakeview Museum of Arts & Sciences, Peoria, Illinois
The Lannan Foundation, Santa Fe, New Mexico
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago, Illinois
Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Museo de Arte Y Historia, Ciudad, Juárez, Mexico Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.
New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico
New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana
New York Public Library, New York, New York
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina
Phoenix Museum of Art, Phoenix, Arizona
San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas
San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, California
Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Sioux City Art Center, Sioux City, Iowa
Smithsonian American Art Museum. Washington D.C.
Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas
University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico
University of Texas, El Paso,Texas
Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
Awards
| 2011 | Texas Medal for the Arts Award, Texas Cultural Trust Council, Austin, TX |
| 2004-2005 | U.S. Art Critics Association (AICA), Best Show in a Commercial Gallery Nationally, 2nd Place, “James Drake: City of Tells”, Betty Moody Gallery, Houston, TX; Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL |
| 2001 | John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, New York, NY Nancy Graves Award for Visual Arts, New York, NY |
| 1989 | Awards in the Visual Arts, Southeast Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC National Endowment for the Arts Grant, National Endowment for the Arts Travel Fellowship, France |
| 1988 | Mid-America Arts Alliance, National Endowment for the Arts Grant, New York, NY |
Solo Exhibitions
| 2022 | “Can We Know the Sound of Forgiveness”, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA |
| 2021 | “Can We Know the Sound of Forgiveness”, Moody Gallery, Houston, TX |
| 2018 | “Tongue-Cut Sparrows (Desire is not Enough)”, Moody Gallery, Houston, TX “Tongue-Cut Sparrows”, Blanton Museum of Art, Film & Video Gallery, Austin, TX, Organized by Carter Foster |
| 2016 | “Flocking Shoaling Swarming (Blue Kiss)”, Holly Johnson Gallery, Dallas, TX “Anatomy of Drawing and Space (Brain Trash)”, The El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX “Drawing, Reading and Counting”, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA |
| 2015 | “The Anatomy of Drawing and Space (Brain Trash), Chapters 4, 6 and 8”, Lannan Foundation Gallery, Santa Fe, NM |
| 2014 | “The Anatomy of Counting and Position”, Moody Gallery, Houston, TX “Anatomy of Drawing and Space (Brain Trash)”, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX “James Drake | Pages, New Drawings” James Kelly Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM “Anatomy of Drawing and Space (Brain Trash)”, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA “Can We Know the Sound of Forgiveness”, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA 2012 “Red Drawings and White Cut-Outs”, Moody Gallery, Houston, TX (book signing in conjunction with James Drake: Red Drawings & White Cut-Outs, Radius Books, Santa Fe, NM) |
| 2011 | “Dancing in the Louvre”, McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas, TX “Salon of a Thousand Souls”, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM “Red Drawings/White Cut-Outs”, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA |
| 2010 | “A Thousand Tongues Burn and Sing”, Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, TX “James Drake”, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA “James Drake”, Dwight Hackett Projects, Santa Fe, NM “When the Swan is in the Sky”, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA |
| 2009 | “White”, Moody Gallery, Houston, TX “James Drake”, El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX (book signing in conjunction with James Drake, University of Texas Press) |
| 2008 | “James Drake”, Moody Gallery, Houston, TX (book signing in conjunction with James Drake, University of Texas Press) |
| 2007 | “War in Heaven”, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA “War in Heaven”, Galveston Arts Center, TX “Border of Desire”, Holly Johnson Gallery, Dallas, TX “The Rain of Huitzilopochtli”, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA “Exit Juárez”, Dwight Hackett Projects, Santa Fe, NM |
| 2006 | “City of Tells”, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Downtown, San Diego, CA “Towards the Pandemonium of the Sun”, Moody Gallery, Houston, TX “Birds of Paquimé”, Adair Margo Gallery, El Paso, TX |
| 2005 | “City of Tells”, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL “City of Tells”, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM |
| 2004 | “City of Tells, With Signs Following”, Moody Gallery, Houston, TX “City of Tells”, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA “Drawings for City of Tells”, Dwight-Hackett Projects, Santa Fe, NM |
| 2003 | “James Drake: Tongue-Cut Sparrows”, Williams Center Art Gallery, Lafayette College, Easton, PA “The Hummingbird’s Equation”, El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX |
| 2002 | “The Hummingbird’s Equation”, Esso Gallery, New York, NY “Zona Mariscal”, Alberto Peola Arte Comtemporanea, Turin, Italy “The Hummingbird’s Equation”, Adair Margo Gallery, El Paso, TX “The Trophy Room and Other Interiors”, Pillsbury Peters Fine Art, Dallas, TX |
| 2001 | “Tongue-Cut Sparrows”, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL “Valley of the World”, SUNY University of Buffalo Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY |
| 2000 | “James Drake: Tongue-Cut Sparrows”, Schick Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY “Que Linda La Brisa”, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL “A Thousand Tongues Burn and Sing”, McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas, TX “Tongue-Cut Sparrows / A Thousand Tongues Burn and Sing”, University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach, CA |
| 1999 | “Conversation Inside-Outside”, Australian Centre for Contemporary Photography, Sydney, Australia “A Thousand Tongues Burn and Sing”, Grand Arts, Kansas City, MO “A Thousand Tongues Burn and Sing”, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE “Civil Rights Memorial”, Adair Margo Gallery, El Paso, TX |
| 1998 | “James Drake: Tongue-Cut Sparrows”, Contemporary Arts Center of Virginia, Virginia Beach, VA “James Drake”, ArtPace, San Antonio, TX “Tongue-Cut Sparrows / A Thousand Tongues Burn and Sing”, Pamela Auchincloss Project Space and Art Management, New York, NY |
| 1997 | “Tongue-Cut Sparrows”, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA “Tongue-Cut Sparrows”, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL “Valley of the World”, NMSU, Las Cruces, NM |
| 1996 | “Tongue-Cut Sparrows”, DiverseWorks, Houston, TX |
| 1995 | “James Drake”, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA |
Group Exhibitions
| 2022 | “What Is Left Unspoken, Love”, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA “The Printer’s Proof: Artist and Printer Collaborations”, Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM |
| 2020-22 | “Connecting Currents: Border / Mapping / Witness”, Nancy and Rich Kinder Building, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX |
| 2019-20 | “Refresh”, El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX |
| 2019 | “It’s All Black and White: Contemporary Art from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation”, Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA “Landfall Press: Five Decades of Printmaking”, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI |
| 2018 | “Walls Turned Sideways: Artists Confront the Justice System”, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX, Curated by Risa Puleo |
| 2017 | “Pride of Place: The Making of Contemporary Art in New Orleans”, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA “Permanent Collection Exhibition Celebrating Museum Renovation”, Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ “Drawing: The Beginning of Everything”, Albright-Know Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY |
| 2016-17 | “Flora and Fauna”, Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, TX, curated by Caleb Bell |
| 2016 | “The Last Picture Show”, James Kelly Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM |
| 2015-16 | “40th Anniversary Exhibition, Moody Gallery, Houston, TX |
| 2015 | “Amplified Abstraction”, El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX “Prospect 2015”, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, CA |
| 2014 | “MAC@20 Part II Featuring The MAC Exhibiting Artists from 2005-2013″, The McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas, TX “Ulterior Motifs 15th Anniversary Exhibition”, Underwood Center of the Arts, Lubbock, TX “Mirrored and Obscured: Contemporary Texas Self-Portraits”, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, TX |
| 2013 | “Editions”, Moody Gallery, Houston, TX “Group Exhibition of Gallery Artists featuring works by James Drake from the “Red Touch” series”, Moody Gallery, Houston, TX |
| 2012 | “Paper Space: Drawings by Sculptors”, Inman Gallery, Houston, TX “Go West! Representation of the American Frontier”, The Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX “Georg Baselitz & James Drake Prints”, Zane Bennett Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM |
| 2011 | “Videosphere: A New Generation”, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY “Connections”, Gerald Peters Gallery, New York, NY “Watching Me/Watching You, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO |
| 2010 | “35 Years: Anniversary Exhibition”, Moody Gallery, Houston, TX “New Works from the Collection”, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX “Sole Mates”, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM “Desire”, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX “Tamarind Touchstones: Fabulous at Fifty”, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM “Case Studies from the Bureau of Contemporary Art”, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM |
| 2009 | “Talking Pictures”, Site Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM “Edge of Abstraction”, El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX “Attempt To Raise Hell”, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, La Jolla, CA “Infinite Patience”, Haunch of Venison, New York, NY “Weighing and Wanting: Selections from the Collection”, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, La Jolla, CA “Edge of Abstraction”, El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX “Drawings Anyone? Recent Acquisitions from the Eleanor and Henry Hitchock Foundation, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO “Dream Bodies”, Kansas City Jewish Museum, Epsten Gallery, Overland, KS “Memory: Shadow + Light, Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe, NM |
| 2008 | “Visions, Selections from the James T. Dyke Collection of Contemporary Drawings”, Naples Museum of Art, Naples, FL, traveled to Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR “Complicated Dominion, Nature & New Political Narratives”, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco, CA “Weighing and Wanting: Selections from the Collection”, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, CA “Drawings by Sculptors”, William Shearburn Gallery, Saint Louis, MO |
| 2007 | “Size Matters: Large-Scale Drawings from the MFAH Collection”, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX “Landscape of War”, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA “James Drake and Terry Allen”, Dwight-Hackett Projects, Santa Fe, NM “Think with the Senses – Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense”, 52nd International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, curator: Robert Storr “Commemorating 30 Years 1976-2007, Part Three”, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL “Ulterior Motifs”, Arlington Museum of Art, Arlington, TX, traveled to Wichita Falls Museum of Art Wichita Falls, TX “Looking West: Regional Art”, Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX “Drawings: Visions, Surfaces, and Beyond”, Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA “The Eclectic Eye: Pop and Illusion- Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation”, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, CO “Amistad- Texas Art in Peru”, Museo de Nacion, Lima, Peru “The Landscape of War”, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA “Birds”, Dwight Hackett Projects, Santa Fe, NM |
| 2006 | “Texas 100: Selections from the El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX “Black White (& Gray)”, The Gallery at the University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX |
| 2005 | “Twenty Artists for Twenty Years”, Adair Margo Gallery, El Paso, TX “Carrington Gallery, Ltd. Presents the artists of Adair Margo Gallery”, Carrington Gallery Ltd., San Antonio, Texas |
| 2004 | 179th Annual National Academy Museum, New York, NY “Perspectives @ 25: A Quarter Century of New Art in Houston”, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX “Landfall Press: A Singular Vision”, Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM |
| 2003 | “The Ultimate Collection”, La Galleria Alberto Peola, Torino, Italy “Game Over”, Grimm/Rosenfeld Gallery, Munich, Germany “deNton, eL pAso, saN antOnio, Texas Trialogues”, Blue Star Contemporary Art Center, San Antonio, TX |
| 2002 | “Lateral Thinking, Art of the 1990’s”, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, CA traveled to Colorado Springs Art Center, Colorado Springs, CO; Hood Museum, Dartmouth University, Hanover, NH, 2003; Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH |
| 2001 | “Double Vision: Photographers from the Strauss Collection”, University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach, CA, traveled to Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA “Zona Mariscal”, New Media Room, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY “James Drake & Jeannette Louie”, Esso Gallery & Books, New York, NY |
| 2000 | “Whitney Biennial 2000, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY “Natural Deceits”, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX “New York Classicism Now”, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, NY “Island Press: Innovation at Washington University”, Washington University Art Gallery, St. Louis, MO “Tamarind: 40 Years”, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM “Texans from the Whitney Biennial”, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA |
| 1999 | “Contemporary Narrative American Prints”, Whitney Museum of American Art at Champion Stamford, CT “Crossing Zones”, De Paul University Art Gallery, Chicago, IL “Texas Draws”, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX “The Figure: Experiencing Views”, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX “23 International Biennial of Graphic Arts”, Ljubljana, Slovenija |
| 1998 | “Photoimage: Printmaking 60’s to 90’s”, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA “Storylines”, CU Art Galleries, Sibell-Wolle Fine Arts Building, Boulder, CO “1998 New Orleans Triennial”, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA “Recent Acquisitions: Contemporary Prints”, National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C. “Pushing Boundaries: Lithographs from 9 American Fine Art Presses”, DAAP Galleries, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH “Art on Paper”, The Weatherspoon Art Gallery, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC |
| 1997 | “Edge of Chaos”, Fotouhi Cramer Gallery, New York, NY “Establishment & Revelation”, Dallas Visual Art Center, Dallas, TX “Finders / Keepers”, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX “Drawings: James Drake, Nathan Olivera, Stephen Talasnik, William Wiley, Nancy Wolf”, Marsha Mateyka Gallery, Washington, D.C. |
| 1996 | “Conceal / Reveal”, Site Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM “Limited Edition Artists Books, Since 1990”, Brooke Alexander, New York, NY “Schemata: Drawings by Sculptors”, Glassell School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX “Continuity & Contradiction”, Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL |
| 1995 | “Tamarind: Into the Nineties”, Weatherspoon Art Gallery, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC “Prints”, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM “Made in Texas”, Parchman Stremmel Gallery, San Antonio, TX |