James O. Clark (b. 1948) is an artist currently residing in Brooklyn, New York. Although he does charcoal drawing and prints, Clark is primarily known for his metamodernist, experimental sculptures. For forty years, he has consistently pushed the limits of the medium with his use of recycled and discarded materials, specifically fiber-optic cables and fluorescent lights. With these light-friendly materials, the viewer enters a darkened gallery space containing neon light tubes or metal sheets activated by motion detectors that hang from the ceiling or combine tangentially towards the floor. Investigating the connection between luminosity and his art, Clark explores his sculptural search with light: “In my creative adventure, I am captivated with the magic of light’s dialogue with form. Light takes a mysterious journey when it’s illuminating, composing, defining, reflecting, refracting, bending, teasing the volume and mass. Light has a poetic conversation with materials that creates a meaningful symbiotic relationship.”
Clark graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1974 from Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. Since 1978, Clark has participated in a variety of solo and group exhibitions at institutions such as the Morris Museum, New Jersey; Sideshow Gallery, Chicago, Illinois; and the New Museum, Studio 18 Gallery, and the Islip Art Museum, all in New York; among others. The artist has also received numerous awards and honorariums, twice from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and twice from the National Endowment of the Arts. Clark served as a fellow for the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and twice secured a grant with the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. He is a member of the American Abstract Artists and was nominated for Who’s Who in America in 2004 by Lisa Phillips, director of the New Museum.
Website
http://www.jamesoclark.com/
