JAMES VOLKERT

For 35 years, James Volkert has worked in museums including 20 years at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Most recently, he was the associate director of the National Museum of the American Indian. In addition to conducting exhibition workshops throughout the world, he taught exhibition development at the George Washington University for 10 years.

“In college, I had the opportunity to work alongside and learn from some great artists including Wayne Thiebaud and Robert Arneson. I saw art that was filled with guile, humor, and craftsmanship. The power of the object was the thing... how it looked, what it referenced.

Over the next 35 years, museums became my home; developing participatory exhibitions for children, designing art exhibitions on a national stage, and finally imagining and developing a museum from concept to opening.

Predictably, all of these experiences are embedded in this recent work. Each starts with a painting that has caught my eye. It is, after all, the act of painting that most important to me that allows me to look carefully, study the nuance, and analyze the process. Then comes the time to play...What can the painting (logically or illogically) do? What is the next level of engagement?

After all, making art for me is about making objects, the perfect combination of museum and the hobby shop.”