James Barsness' fame began to spread in the late 1980s, with his first solo shows at the San Francisco Art Institute and at other venues in California. Since then, he has had solo shows in many cities across the country, most lately in the George Adams Gallery in New York City, which handles his work. He has likewise participated in numerous group shows in states from coast to coast.
While his work is coveted by collectors, it has also been purchased for numerous public collections, including those at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum in Winter Park, Fla., and The Pennsylvania Academy of Art in Philadelphia.
"My art partly has to do with my crackpot ideas about life and living," says Barness, laughing. "I'm interested in how groups of people interact in a continuous environment like a town. It's primarily about the suppression of our natural interests for the good of the whole. I think it's that moment of suppression that initiates much of our creative energy."

b. 1954 Bozeman, Montana

Education
1988 San Francisco Art Institute, MFA
1985 Boise State University, Art Education, MA
1979 Boise State University, BA

Teaching
2000 Assistant Professor, University of Georgia, Athens
1999 Instructor, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA

Awards
1999 University of Georgia Faculty Research Grant
1996 Elizabeth Foundation Grant
1989 Juror's Award, Crocker/Kingsley Annual, Sacramento, CA
1988 Binney and Smith National Art Achievement Award

Solo Exhibitions
2002 James Barsness: The Prize, George Adams Gallery,
New York, NY
2002 James Barsness, Arrow, Athens, GA
2001 Any History Will Do, James Barsness New Paintings,
George Adams Gallery, New York, NY
2001 Arrow, Athens, GA
2000 Brian Gross Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
1999 George Adams Gallery, New York, NY
1998 It's A Beautiful World, George Adams Gallery, New York
1997 James Barsness: Icons of Comic Relief, John Michael
Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin
1997 New Civilizations, George Adams Gallery, New York, NY
1996 California Museum of Art, Santa Rosa, CA
1996 The Rhythm of Rebel Angels, Susan Cummins Gallery,
Mill Valley, CA
1995 The Usual Difficulties, George Adams Gallery, New York, NY
1995 Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem,
NC
1994 New Works on Paper, Frumkin/Adams Gallery, New York,
NY
1994 Mythic Inventions, Boise Art Museum, ID
1994 Susan Cummins Gallery, Mill Valley, CA
(also 1993, 1991, 1990)
1994 Dominican College, San Rafael, CA
1992 Caplan, Santa Monica, CA
1989 Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, CA
(also 1987)
1988 Basement Studios, San Francisco, CA

Selected Group Exhibitions
2004 Bush-Whack!, George Adams Gallery, New York, NY
2003 Summer Solos: Jim Barsness, David Eisenhour, and
Jeff Sonhouse, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA
2003 The Board Show, di Rosa Preserve/Off the Preserve,
Napa, CA
2002 Me, Myself & I, George Adams Gallery, New York, NY
2001-2002 Impact: New Faculty in the Lamar Dodd School of Art,
Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
2001 Artists Respond: A Benefit Exhibition of Works By Gallery Artist
and I Love New York Benefit, George Adams Gallery, NY
2001 Magic Vision, Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR
(catalogue)
2001 Black Male: Portraits by Willie Birch with paintings by James
Barsness and sculpture by Neil Harshfield, Arthur Roger Gallery, LA
2001 Reconsidering the Renaissance, Bridgewater, Lustberg &
Blumenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
2000 Imagined Landscapes: DREAM, Consolidated Works,
Seattle, WA
2000 2000 Collector's Show, Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AK
2000 The Image of Text, Sawhill Gallery, James Madison
University, Harrisonburg, VA
2000 American Art Today: Fantasies and Curiosities, The Art
Museum, Florida International University, Miami, FL (catalogue)
2000 Bizarro World! The Parallel Universes of Comics and Fine
Arts, Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL (catalogue)
2000 Six Painters, Sonoma State University
1999 Art About Art, George Adams Gallery, New York
1998 Annual Collector's Show, Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock
(also 1994, 1993, 1992)
1998 Peep Show: An Exhibition of Erotic Fact and Fantasy, Luise
Ross Gallery, New York
1997 A Show of Hands, George Adams Gallery, New York
1997 Mixing Business with Pleasure, Sawhill Gallery, James
Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA
1997 Recent Acquisitions, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts,
Philadelphia
1997 The Importance of Toys, Monique Knowlton Gallery, New
York, NY
1996 The New Traditionalists, Museum of Art, University of
Oregon, Eugene
1995 Out of 'Toon: Another Look at Art & the Comics, George
Adams Gallery, New York
1995 The Hebrew Home for the Aged, Riverdale, NY
1995 The Reconstructed Figure: The Human Image in
Contemporary Art, Katonah Museum of Art, New York
1994 Figure Drawing, Charles Moore Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1994 Here and Now: Bay Area Masterworks from the Di Rosa
Collection, The Oakland Museum, CA
1994 Comic Influences, Susan Cummins Gallery, Mill Valley, CA
1994 Drawings: Reaffirming the Media, Art Gallery, University
of Missouri, Kansas City, MO
1992 Large-Scale Drawings: Gallery Artists and Invited Guests,
Frumkin/Adams Gallery, New York
1992 Caplan Gallery, Santa Monica
1991 Hanno Ahrens/James Barsness, Frumkin/Adams Gallery,
New York
1990 Introductions, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1990 Iconic Image, Susan Cummins Gallery, Mill Valley, CA
1989 Crock Kinsley Annual, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
1989 Rental Gallery, Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA

Selected Collections
Allentown Art Museum, Pennsylvania
Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock
Boise Museum of Art, Idaho
Capital Light, Hartford
Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Winter Park, FL
Neuberger & Berman, New York, NY
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia
Perseis Collection, Honolulu, HI
Rene and Veronica di Rosa Art Preserve, Napa, CA
Sealed Air Corporation
Stephens Inc, Little Rock, AR
Wellington Management, Boston, MA
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

Selected Bibliography
Baker, Kenneth, "A Moral Warning In Troubled Seas," San Francisco Chronicle, May 6, 2000
---. Art News, March 1994
Barsness, Jim. "The Monster's Progres, HARD PRESS, Stockbridge,
MA, 2000
Bonetti, David. "Gallery Watch," San Francisco Examiner,
May 12, 2000
DeCarlo, Tessa. The New York Times, August 31, 1997
Goodman, Jonathan. Art in America, October 1998
Johnson, Kenneth. "Art Reviews," The New York Times,
November 5, 1999.
---."Art Reviews," The New York Times, October 25, 1999
Local Color: The Di Rosa Collection of Contemporary California Art,
Chronicle Press, 1999
Patterson, Tom, Winston-Salem Journal Spring, June 11, 1995
Porges, Maria. Artforum, January 1994
Shearin, Margaret. Triad, May 1995.