James Kearns

American (1924 - )

James Kearns is a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1950, and has been an Instructor in Drawing, Painting and Sculpture at the School of Visual Arts, NYC, 1960 – 1990, the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, summers 1961 – 1964, among other institutions. He has had one mans shows in New York City, Houston, Texas, and various institutions and galleries in New Jersey most recently at Rider University in Lawrenceville in 2006. He has exhibited widely in the United States and is represented in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney, Museum of American Art, Smithsonian National Collection, Wash., DC, Newark and Trenton Museums in New Jersey and numerous private collections.

Kearns views his primary subject matter, the human figure, as an embodiment of the human spirit. A sculptor who works in fiberglass, and a painter as well, Kearns seeks to portray "Man as Total Man—the Tragic, Complex and Joyful Man." Kearns received a B.F.A. in 1950 from the Art Institute of Chicago and held a factory job for ten years to support his family. He has devoted a major portion of his time to teaching; since 1959 he has been an instructor at the School of Visual Arts in New York and has also taught at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey and at the Skowhegan School of Art in Maine.