Jimmy James Canales: The Line Layer

Jimmy James Canales: The Line Layer

Mar 4–May 29, 2022

Jimmy James Canales : The Line Layer
March 4- May 29, 2022
Project Space Gallery

Jimmy James Canales’ solo project brings to fruition explorations from his Berlin Residency at Künstlerhaus Bethanien as an awardee of Contemporary at Blue Star’s Berlin Residency Program in 2019. Canales’ installation uses play as an integral part of his practice to investigate ideas of standardizations of body, form, shape, and ultimate humans. He builds a space that references both physical and virtual games, from board games to video games to arcades to sports fields and playgrounds, where he sites his figures that often become activated by viewers. This newest body of work also includes multiple types of models at various scales, as the artist considers the role of models, avatars, and the like in our lives to capture our project our ideas.

Artist Statement
This installation harnesses the power of fantasy, personal myth making, and play in response to the life altering experiences of travel, parenthood, loss, and the pandemic. I have assembled an environment akin to an adventure playground, obstacle course or dungeon as experienced in the table top role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. Conjured from a mixture of domestic furniture, playground structures, and found materials – rocks, fake plants, sarape blankets, etc. These assemblages are transformed into archetypal obstacles – the mountain, the bridge, the tower, the throne, the tunnel, stepping stones, the maze, and finally, the grotto. Half scaled figures, representing dierent aspects of my own psyche endlessly encounter hurdles and looming monsters. From the wilder man, “Mapachito” covered in faux coonskin hat souvenirs to the surveyor, “The Line Layer” overlaid with grids. They each have their individual attributes but collectively represent one quest through the lair – to reach the golden gridded statuette. This exhibition is an escape inward, textured with distinctive characters, fantastic obstacles and sublime encounters. 

Biography
“Jimmy” James Canales is a San Antonio-based artist working in sculpture and expanded media. Canales received his BFA from the Museum School of Fine Arts in Boston, and his MFA from the University of Texas at San Antonio. His work has been shown throughout the state of Texas as well as nationally, including Boston, MA; Los Angeles, CA; and Las Cruces, NM. Canales is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, most notably the Arch and Anne Giles Kimbrough Award for Artists (2015), the Tanne Foundation Award (2016), the Vermont Studio Center Artist Grant (2015), and the Blue Star Contemporary Berlin Residency Program at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, DE (2019). In addition, he works as a Lecturer in Studio Art: Expanded Media at Texas State University in San Marcos.