James Siena

James Siena is one of today’s brightest exponents of abstraction. His contained and absorbing modest-sized works offer a pointed response to the expansive nature of Abstract Expressionism. Inspired by a range of disparate sources—patterns, algorithms, puzzle-like geometries—Siena’s paintings and drawings are constructed almost entirely by hand-drawn line. Each embodies the sustained attention and formal intelligence of an artist determined to release the seemingly limitless potential contained within the parameters of rule-based picture-making.

Born in Oceanside, California, in 1957, James Siena lives and works in New York City. He received his BFA from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. His work has been featured in numerous solo exhibitions and over 55 group exhibitions, including the 2004 Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial. He is the recipient of an Award in Art from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Competition Award; and The New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Painting. His work can be found in the public collections of the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University in Ithaca, New York; Museum of Fine Art in Boston; and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York among others.