James Surls, born in East Texas in 1943 and a 1965 graduate of Sam Houston State Teachers College, Huntsville, Texas, and three years later, the acclaimed Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, makes sculptures of wood, steel or bronze which reflect his unique sensibility to natural forms. Growing up among the trees of eastern Texas, he played for hours in the woods and forests. His attraction to and affinity for nature and its beauty are evident in his work. More profoundly, though, they speak about the man himself. Surls’ works are often based on objects and symbols that are made to take on the shapes of human or other life forms. Expressionist in style, his tall metal sculptures stand majestically against the sky. His simplified wood pieces seem rough-hewn and naïve, cloaking his great skill as a craftsman. More than most artists, Surls’s work is a self portrait, not in detail but in soul. In his long and illustrious career, James Surls has had work included in many group and solo exhibitions; he is proudest of three: Visions at the Dallas Museum of Art, 1984, James Surls - In the Meadows and Beyond, Meadows Museum of Art, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, 2003, and James Surls: The Splendora Years 1977-1997, University of Houston Blaffer Gallery, Texas, 2005. Most recently, in the spring of 2009, his work his been on view along Park Avenue in New York City. He taught at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas from 1969 until 1976, when he moved to Splendora, Texas. There he established Lawndale Alternative Space, an artists’ colony, continuing to teach and encourage others while producing some of his finest work. For the past several years, he has resided in the Roaring Fork Valley in western Colorado. | | 
Standing Vase with Five Flowers, 2005
bronze, stainless steel
15" x 7" x 7"
On Loan Courtesy of the Artist |
