February meeting spotlights African-American artist James Denmark

Mixed-media artist James Denmark, who worked 42 years in New York before moving to South Carolina in 2001, will talk about how his work draws on the African-American experience at the February meeting of the Lake Norman Art League.

The meeting will be Monday, Feb. 12, at 7 p.m., at Ada Jenkins Center, 212 Gamble St., in Davidson. It is free and open to the public.

Mr. Denmark became interested in art as a youngster in Florida and studied at Florida A&M University, in Tallahassee, and Pratt Institute in New York, where he earned a master of fine arts degree. After Pratt, he set up a studio in New York’s Soho district and came into contact with other African American artists who had been part of the Harlem Renaissance. Among his teachers and influences was the great African American painter Jacob Lawrence. Other influences were Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, Ernest Crichlow, Jackson Pollock, Clifford Still and Willem de Kooning.

Today he creates mixed-media images and collages improvised from  fabric and wallpaper scraps and other found materials. His images tread the line between abstract and figurative.

“My work draws quite heavily on the African American experience,” Mr. Denmark says. “I look back the same way some of the traditional European artists did at the abstractness of African art and the improvisation used to come up with very spiritual and powerful images that convey stories sometimes and sometimes just provoke emotions.”

In 2001, Mr. Denmark moved to South Carolina, building a studio in Yemassee, about 40 miles from Hilton Head.

His collages, watercolors and prints are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bank of America Corp., and Oprah Winfrey.

The Feb. 12 meeting is free and open to the public. For more information, call Audree Spatz at 704-483-1750 or email her at audreesoriginals@bellsouth.net.