{{short description|Canadian artist|bot=PearBOT 5}} {{Infobox artist | honorific_prefix = | name = James Carl | honorific_suffix = | image = <!-- just the pagename, without the File:/Image: prefix or brackets --> | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name = <!-- only use if different than name --> | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1960}} | birth_place = Montreal | death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} --> | death_place = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|type:landmark|display=inline}} --> | nationality = | education = | alma_mater = | known_for = Sculptor | notable_works = | style = | movement = | spouse = | awards = <!-- {{awd|award|year|title|role|name}} (optional) --> | elected = | patrons = | memorials = | website = | module = }} alt=Large red rubber band sculpture, made of steel and installed inside a building lobby|thumb|''things end (Eau Claire)'' by James Carl, 2020. Installed in Calgary, Alberta. '''James Carl''' (born 1960, in Montreal) is a Canadian artist with a thirty-year exhibition history in Canada and internationally.<ref name="Chin-listing">{{cite web|title=Artist/Maker Name "Carl, James"|url=http://www.rcip-chin.gc.ca/application/aac-aic/artiste_detailler_ind-artist_detail_ind.app;jsessionid=50DFEAED2B9AEC0A35D7DF5FF8B14391?rID=40874&fID=2&lang=en&qlang=en&pID=1&anm=Carl%2C+James&sort=AM_ASC&ps=50&pID1=162&ps1=50&ansf=TAM&sort1=ascending|website=Canadian Heritage Information Network|accessdate=28 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624054434/http://www.rcip-chin.gc.ca/application/aac-aic/artiste_detailler_ind-artist_detail_ind.app;jsessionid=50DFEAED2B9AEC0A35D7DF5FF8B14391?rID=40874&fID=2&lang=en&qlang=en&pID=1&anm=Carl,+James&sort=AM_ASC&ps=50&pID1=162&ps1=50&ansf=TAM&sort1=ascending|archive-date=24 June 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="CanArt-feature">{{cite web |title=James Carl: Nicholas Metivier |url=https://metiviergallery.com/artists/76-james-carl/overview/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170124163322/http://canadianart.ca/must-sees/james-carl/ |archive-date=2017-01-24 |accessdate=7 Oct 2022 |website=Nicholas Metivier Gallery}}</ref><ref name="York-residency">{{cite web|title=Canadian Sculptor James Carl Artist-in-Residence at York University|url=http://ampd.yorku.ca/news/york-canadian-sculptor-james-carl-artist-in-residence-at-york-university/|website=York University|accessdate=28 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160629154049/http://ampd.yorku.ca/news/york-canadian-sculptor-james-carl-artist-in-residence-at-york-university/|archive-date=29 June 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Life== Carl completed a BFA at the University of Victoria in the early 1980s. At Victoria, he worked primarily with Roland Brener, but was also influenced by Mowry Baden, Susan G. Scott, and Fred Douglas. Carl earned a BA in 1992 from the East Asian Studies program at McGill University, where he studied with Kenneth Dean and Roberto Ong. On two occasions (1989–1990, 1994–1995) Carl studied at the Central Academy of Art in Beijing (中央美术学院). In 1996, he earned his MFA from Rutgers University, studying with Laura Ewing, Martha Rosler, and Geoffrey Hendricks.<ref>{{Cite web |title=James Carl: do you know what, a survey 1990-2008 |url=https://artmuseum.utoronto.ca/exhibition/james-carl-know/ |access-date=2022-10-07 |website=Art Museum at the University of Toronto |language=en-CA}}</ref>
==Work== Carl works in sculpture and drawing, using a variety of materials ranging from cardboard to marble, commercial signage to conventional print media.<ref name="BordCross-feature">{{cite web |last1=Dick |first1=Terence |title=What You See is What You Don’t Get: The Art of James Carl |url=http://bordercrossingsmag.com/article/what-you-see-is-what-you-dont-get-the-art-of-james-carl |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624233923/http://bordercrossingsmag.com/article/what-you-see-is-what-you-dont-get-the-art-of-james-carl |archive-date=24 June 2016 |accessdate=30 May 2016 |website=Border Crossings}}</ref> Early sculptural works promoted direct viewer participation and public encounter.<ref>{{Cite web |last=gallery |first=grunt |title=James Carl - Public Works {{!}} Sculpture |url=https://sculpture.gruntarchives.org/artist-james-carl-public-works.html |access-date=2026-02-11 |website=sculpture.gruntarchives.org |language=en}}</ref> More recent works connect to the viewer through their vocabulary of common forms and materials. In Carl's work "both material and manufacture are enlisted into the economy of meaning" (Barbara Fischer).<ref>{{Cite book |author=Carl, James |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/302061129 |title=James Carl : do you know what : a survey, 1990-2008. |date=2009 |publisher=Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, Hart House, University of Toronto, Cambridge Galleries and Macdonald Stewart Art Centre |isbn=978-0-7727-6072-2 |oclc=302061129}}</ref> Elastic bands are a favoured motif, having been the subject of multiple artworks dating back to at least 2009.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What You See is What You Don’t Get: The Art of James Carl |url=https://bordercrossingsmag.com/article/what-you-see-is-what-you-dont-get-the-art-of-james-carl |access-date=2023-01-15 |website=bordercrossingsmag.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=James Carl, Thing's End, (Festival Tower), 2012 |url=https://metiviergallery.com/artworks/categories/33/13636-james-carl-thing-s-end-festival-tower-2012/ |access-date=2023-01-15 |website=Nicholas Metivier Gallery |language=en}}</ref> Chinese culture has been an aspect of Carl's research since traveling to China in the mid 1980s. He has lectured at the Central Academy of Art in Beijing (中央美术学院) regularly over the intervening years, most recently leading a master's class in 2019. In association with the Sui Jian Guo Foundation,<ref>{{Cite news |title=Sui Jian Guo Art Foundation - Directory - Art & Education |url=https://www.artandeducation.net/directory/125135/sui-jian-guo-art-foundation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105142148/https://www.artandeducation.net/directory/125135/sui-jian-guo-art-foundation |archive-date=2022-11-05 |access-date=2026-02-11 |url-status=live }}</ref> Carl is the co-editor and co-translator of a series of Chinese translations of modern and contemporary Western art historical texts. Among the translations are William Tucker's Language of Sculpture, Rosalind Krauss' Passages in Modern Sculpture, Dan Graham's collected writings, ''Rock My Religion'', and most recently, ''Formless''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tate |title=Formlessness |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/f/formlessness |access-date=2026-04-07 |website=Tate |language=en-GB}}</ref>'': A User's Guide'', by Rosalind Krauss and Yves Alain Bois. The latter was published in China in 2021.
Carl's work is included in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario and private collections in Canada, the US, China and Europe.<ref>{{Cite web |title=National Gallery of Canada: James Carl |url=https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artist/james-carl |access-date=2022-10-07 |website=National Gallery of Canada}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Breeze into the AGO |url=https://ago.ca/agoinsider/breeze-ago |access-date=2022-10-07 |website=Art Gallery of Ontario |language=en}}</ref> Carl has completed several large-scale public projects, notably in Toronto, Calgary, and in Wuhan, China. A number of these projects are from his ''Thing's End'' series, depicting large rubber bands fabricated in steel or aluminum.<ref>{{Cite web |last=avenuecalgary |date=2021-04-07 |title=Work of Art: thing’s end (Eau Claire - red) and thing’s end (Eau Claire - yellow) by James Carl |url=https://www.avenuecalgary.com/city-life/work-of-art/things-end-eau-claire-red-things-end-eau-claire-yellow-by-james-carl/ |access-date=2022-10-07 |website=Avenue Calgary |language=en-CA}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Daniels Unveils 'Thing's End' by Artist James Carl at Festival Tower {{!}} UrbanToronto |url=https://urbantoronto.ca/news/2012/05/daniels-unveils-things-end-artist-james-carl-festival-tower |access-date=2022-10-07 |website=urbantoronto.ca}}</ref>
From 1999-2022, he was a professor of studio art at the University of Guelph.<ref>{{Cite web |title=James Carl {{!}} College of Arts |url=https://www.uoguelph.ca/arts/sofam/people/james-carl |access-date=2022-10-07 |website=www.uoguelph.ca}}</ref> Among his many successful students are: Kelly Jazvac, Derek Sullivan, Zin Taylor, Kristan Horton, James Gardner, Roula Partheniou, Devon Knowles, Peter Gazendam, Tiziana La Melia, Jen Aitken, and Patrick Cruz.
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Carl, James}} Category:1960 births Category:Artists from Toronto Category:Canadian academics of fine arts Category:Academic staff of the University of Guelph Category:Canadian sculptors Category:Canadian male sculptors Category:Living people