About

As an undergraduate James McKenna studied metalsmithing. In years after, he worked in a variety of creative fields. In the early 2000s he returned to metal, this time to steel, and his practice evolved into assemblages of steel and other materials. In 2023 he received an MFA from the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning at University of Cincinnati.

Statement
Years ago I realized that my work builds meaning with materials, texture, and form. I don't ignore color, but for me materials determine color. As I shifted from working with new steel to using salvaged steel, wood, and other materials, I learned that things with a past evoke feelings that new things can’t. I noticed as well that the surfaces of used things tell stories. They’re scarred and stained, rusted, weathered.

The sculptural art I make today reflects my affinity for things with history. Most of the wood I use is hardwoods from the industrial pallets. Much of my steel comes from scrapyards.

I use tools in unusual ways, making marks, developing textures. You see in my work natural textures too: rust, wear, and corrosion and decay. My colors are almost all inherent in their materials: blackened steel and shades of rust, charred and weather-darkened wood, the brilliance of gold and of polished steel, copper, and bronze.

The quality that ties the crude aesthetic of my fine art work to the grace of my steel tables is an urge to be free of gravity. Nearly everything I make defies or resists gravity.

CV
Selected Exhibitions
2024 Shelter, performed in Queensgate, Cincinnati, Ohio
2024 In the Heart of the Heart of the Country, installation in Northern Kentucky University faculty show, Highland Heights, Kentucky
2023 Cyclone, installation at PAR-Projects, Cincinnati, Ohio
2023 Directors’ Choice, Group Show, Reed Gallery, Cincinnati Ohio
2023 Remains, installation at Earth Day Group Show, Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park, Hamilton, Ohio
2023 Earthbound, installation in Ready to Bolt, Group Show, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
2023 Rectilinear, Installation, Solo Show, DAAP Annex Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
2023 Annual Juried Show, Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia
2023 The Days, Installation, Solo Show, Tabula Rasa Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
2022 First Class Passage, Installation, Solo Show, DAAP Annex Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
2023 Winter Juried Show, Blue Mountain Gallery, Chelsea, New York
2022 Real Allegory of My Life as an Artist, performed at Annexibition, DAAP Annex, Cincinnati, Ohio
2022 Banners, Solo Show, Tabula Rasa Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
2022 Difficult Body, Solo Show, DAAP Annex Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
2022 I Feel Myself Alive in This Passing Moment, performed at IRiS Ignite Conference of the Institute for Research in Sensing, Cincinnati, Ohio
2022 Abstract, Group Show, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, California
2022 Is It Done Yet? Group Show, Gallery 114, Portland, Oregon
2022 Beast, installation at Earth Day Group Show, Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park, Hamilton, Ohio
2022 Residual, Group Show, Tabula Rasa Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
2022 129, installation, Solo Show, DAAP Annex Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
2021 Group Show, Reed Gallery, Cincinnati Oho
2021 Field Work, Group Show, Meyers Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
2021 The Myth & the Thing Itself, Solo Show, Tabula Rasa Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
Awards
2023 DAAPworks Directors’ Choice Award, University of Cincinnati, College of Design, Art, Architecture & Planning
2022 Judith Smith Koroscik Graduate Fellowship, University of Cincinnati, College of Design, Art, Architecture & Planning
2022 Beverly Helmhold Erschell Endowed Scholarship, University of Cincinnati, College of Design, Art, Architecture & Planning
2022 Wolfstein Travel Fellowship (Iceland), University of Cincinnati, College of Design, Art, Architecture & Planning
Education
2023 MFA University of Cincinnati, College of Design, Art, Architecture & Planning
1992 MA, English, University of Cincinnati
Teaching
2023-24 Northern Kentucky University, School of the Arts, Highland Heights, KY
2021 University of Cincinnati, College of Design, Architecture, Art & Planning
2012 University of Cincinnati-Clermont, Batavia, OH
1992-95 University of Cincinnati, McMicken College of Arts and Sciences