James Parker Foley

James Parker Foley
United States, born 1993
Divers Approaching Infinite Density, 2023
oil on linen, 72 x 60 inches
Courtesy of Sarah Bouchard Gallery
© James Parker Foley
Image courtesy the artist

James Parker Foley (born 1993) grew up in New Hampshire playing in the woods, scrambling on rocks, and falling into frog ponds. He earned his BA in environmental humanities at Sterling College in Vermont in 2015 and his MFA at the Maine College of Art in 2020. James has exhibited at Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, New System Exhibitions, Katzman Contemporary Projects, Northern Daughters, and Spring/Break Art Fair, and he is currently represented by Sarah Bouchard Gallery. He has completed residencies on Monhegan Island, Maine (2021), and at Jx Farms in Mississippi (2022) and Monson Arts in Maine (2023). James is a gay transsexual whose practice is grounded within an intimate community of queer artists in Portland. 

Artist statement

My paintings are set within the world of my mind: a spare, utopian iteration of the Maine coast. The recent works are predominantly blue and set at night—I find this creates a lucid, expansive space. In this world, water and sky might be interchangeable. When painting in oil, I typically work large—I find that the figures need this space to expand into being.

 In a sense, my work is autobiographical. The figures within the work are amoral beings that live inside of me. These proxy-selves loudly act out different parts of my interior experience; they fight with themselves and others, succumb to lust, cause mischief, grieve loudly and expressively, and—occasionally—they clamber, fall, glide, or wander between dimensions. They are hungry, and godless, and want to be seen.