James Denmark

James Denmark was born in Winter Haven, Florida on March 23, 1936 into a family of Artists. He was exposed to color and form at an early age by his grandmother, a wire sculptor and quilt artist, by his grandfather, a bricklayer noted for his unique custom design molds and his mother who was gifted with an intuitive feeling for design and a fastidiousness for detail which she expressed in all aspects of her daily life. This rich beginning is the root of James Denmark’s creative expression.

He attended Florida Agriculture and Mechanical University (FAMU) in Tallahassee, Florida on a sports scholarship. While pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree at FAMU, Denmark came under the tutelage of the artist and acclaimed African-American art historian, Dr. Samella Lewis, who exposed him to the great traditions and accomplishments of the African-American art movement. After graduating from FAMU, Denmark moved to Brooklyn, New York and began a career as an art teacher in the public school system.

From 1973 to 1976, Denmark earned his Master of Fine Arts Degree at the prestigious Pratt Institute of Fine Arts in New York. While at Pratt, Denmark met and was nurtured by an immensely talented community of artists. During this period he was heavily influenced by the abstract expressionists and admired such mainstream artists as Jackson Pollock, Clifford Still, William deKooning. The African-American masters Norman Lewis, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence and Ernest Crichlow instilled in him an appreciation of African/American artistic heritage. "So much richness reinforced my natural talents," Denmark says of his growth at Pratt. He likens it to picking up a baton and carrying it to the next leg-his collages. Denmark’s work underwent a stylistic transition at this time. He began experimenting with collage. Prior to this period, he worked primarily in watercolors and charcoal.

Denmark has a natural affinity for the difficult and largely improvisational medium of collage and quickly developed his own unique and easily identifiable style. With brightly handcolored papers, fabric and objects, Denmark creates compositions that go beyond the superficial and transitory and focuses, instead, on what is eternal and universal.

Denmark’s collages, watercolors, woodcuts and reproductions are consistently and eagerly sought by galleries and collectors worldwide. He has had over 60 one-man exhibitions and has participated in a number of group shows. His level of acclaim is reflected in the number of prestigious collections in which his works are represented, most notable that of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Denmark’s works are a part of well recognized private and corporate collections in this country, as well as in Mexico, South Africa, Europe, Japan and Africa.

James Denmark continues to live and work in Brooklyn, New York.

"...the search for self Diaspora people is often a difficult pursuit. It is linked to an understanding of history, a time, a place, a common collective past. Cheated of this common collective past, diasporic peoples turn to their artists, musicians and actors to create/recreate what might have been and should be. This particulary true of the visual arts. And is even more true in the work of the artist James Denmark.

His collages are vivid representations of the lives of Black folks in the Diaspora world. Bits and pieces of brightly colored paper take form under his masterful hands and eyes, shaping bits and pieces of fragmented lives into elegant narratives of the folks we are, known or might have known.

The search for self is satisfied with Denmark's collaes. We locate ourselves in the moments. The place and time is something lost, of coming home.

This is the power of Denmark's work - one glance and what was lost is immeidately found - a whole history, where you come from, where you are and where you are going.

Jeffrey Prince
Art Historian/Collector
New York, New York 1993