Terrell James - Remembering the Poison Tree

Terrell James: Remembering the Poison Tree
24th October - 11th November 2016

We are delighted to present the first solo show of paintings byTerrell James at Cadogan Contemporary,‘Remember the Poison Tree’.

A seventh generation Texan, James is a well known Houston-based artist who has worked and lived internationally amassing a strong following of distinguished collectors and admirers of her work.

Remembering the Poison Tree brings together paintings from the past seven years of James’ practice and takes it’s title from one of the paintings. In the catalogue, artist, critic and fellow Texan-native Michael Petry writes, “Remembering the Poison Tree (2015), is very lush but has no colours that I have seen on trees, poisonous or not. After reading the title we have to regroup our ideas about what we are seeing. A beautiful pink hovers in the top right corner while bright deep blues pop out across the painting, and as with all good abstraction it has its own infrastructure. [...] William Blake’s illustrated poem A Poison Tree and Walter Clemons (born in Houston,Texas but lived and worked in NewYork) collection of short stories The PoisonTree, both have a bearing on James’ painting.”

Walter Hopps, the legendary Curator and Founding Director of The Menil Collection, viewed James as being among the finest gestural abstractionists working in Texas and as one of the best in the country. Hopps stated,“she has mastered a lyrical freedom usually seen in watercolor rather than in oil. Although articulated line is often structurally important, the paintings are primarily built of patches and fluid areas of colour.” Hopps, having earlier championed the abstract paintings of Richard Diebenkorn and Sam Francis in the 1950’s, is eminently qualified to have praised the art of James in the first decade of the twenty-first century.

James has been awarded the 2016 Texas Artist of the Year award by Art League Houston cementing her place at the forefront of contemporary painting in the USA and we believe Remember the Poison Tree, James’s first solo exhibition in London, will further her international reputation substantially.

James is currently represented by Jason McCoy Inc.in NewYork, BarryWhistler Gallery in Dallas, Hiram Butler Gallery in Houston, Froelick Gallery in Portland, and Cadogan Contemporary in London.

All works can be viewed online at
www.cadogancontemporary.com

For more information, please contact lucasta@cadogancontemporary.com or +44 (0)207 581 5451
87 Old Brompton Road
London SW7 3LD
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7581 5451 info@cadogancontemporar y.com
Gallery Hours Monday - Friday 10am - 6pm Saturday 11am - 6pm