Connect 20/21: Bridging
James Nye
Humans communicate by transmitting and receiving information. Aided by technology, we have been able to greatly increase the speed at which we communicate, the distance we can send our messages and the sheer capacity of information being sent. Still, understanding is not guaranteed. Bridging knowledge.
These paintings are depictions of information sent from the International Space Station to my mobile phone. Astronauts performing maintenance during a space walk. Garbled visuals piqued my curiosity. The intensity of the sunlight in outer space made the terrestrial colours look both vivid and muted at once. Strange, dark shadows. A painter’s dream.
Nye’s paintings are rooted in the realist, descriptive tradition of oil painting. The act of seeing is not always easy and to him the beauty is in looking and not necessarily what you are looking at. In his paintings there is an abundance of information at hand. Imagery overlaps. Systems collide. Colour, line and form blanket the landscape. Nye’s compositions are like a playground for the eyes and decoding their message requires a certain kind of visual agility.
After graduating from high school James found himself with no ambition in his life and no insight into where it would take him. He moved to Vancouver Island where a slow and steady process of awakening took place. This is when James discovered painting. Within two years he was studying at the Victoria College of Art and painting became a way of life. James graduated in 2002 and moved back to Ontario where he has become a prominent artist in Waterloo Region, continuously exhibiting thought provoking works of the highest standard.