A Minute with James Inscho
Hi! This is a newsletter about artists I like.
I began acquiring art through some friends that worked in galleries. I started small, working on a limited budget, for stuff I could afford. As time passed, my collection grew, and it was exciting to watch many of the artists I'd collected go on to bigger shows and critical acclaim. My goal with this newsletter is to make a digestible resource for anyone interested in artists that are making great (and still affordable!) work, whom you haven't heard about... yet.
Tops Gallery is one of my favorite galleries around. I love Matt’s point of view and the artists he works with. I’ve been wanting to have him on here ever since I started this so when he posted about James’ upcoming show, we thought this would be a good fit.
I think this show is great and I am buying a work so I’m not just saying it.
Support TOPS and support James! For purchase info, reach out to Matt - HERE.
Are you from Memphis and can you chat a bit about your background and how you got to showing with Tops in Memphis?
JI: Memphis is home, but I was born in Dothan, Alabama. I lived all around the South growing up as my family moved a lot. I had a lot of different interests as a kid, but art was a consistent focus throughout my childhood. I always drew a lot, and early on I wanted to be a Disney cartoonist, and later an architect.
I took some time away from college and moved to Memphis in 2004 to (unsuccessfully) pursue music for a few years. I went back to school in 2007 at the University of Memphis for graphic design, and ended up taking a studio elective in painting one semester. I was instantly hooked. The language and history of painting resonated with me in a way that no other medium had before. I switched majors that following semester.
I met Matt Ducklo while I was still a student at UofM. I graduated shortly after that and my wife and I moved to Philadelphia in 2011 so I could go to Tyler for my MFA. Matt started Tops in 2012, and I got wind of it a couple years later, and I began following the space online. His programming really impressed me. It was exciting to see a space like that in Memphis, and I hoped to eventually have an opportunity to show at the space. We exchanged a couple of emails over the years.
Returning to Memphis was always on the table. In the Fall of 2019, my wife and I started seriously discussing moving back. COVID postponed our plans, but we eventually landed in Memphis in 2022. I reconnected with Matt once we got in town, and had him over to the studio to see this new body of work I had been developing. He expressed interest in doing a show together, and it had been in the works since.
How would you describe your style of painting?
JI: My paintings are small-scale, improvisational, and abstract. I try to capture a looseness in the work, where things feel like they are barely held together or in a state of happening. There are references to natural phenomena like shadow and reflection, and marks often resemble handwriting, scribbles, or glyphs. The paintings seem logical, but are nonsensical. They suggest a lot, but say little.
The work comes from a place of reexamining, reliving, and recontextualizing fragments of observed moments and felt experiences, of navigating the ambiguity of existence at a time when we have limitless access to information, perspectives, and opinions.
I work in acrylic gouache and I like to have a lot of paintings in process at a time. I don’t start with any plan, and I jump around between surfaces as I work and let decisions and motifs from one painting inform the next. Sometimes the paintings come together quickly, and occasionally they’ll stretch out over years: a couple layers of paint or many.
I’m in Florida and in a small town and love to see artists and gallerists that are creating their own world in perhaps a town/city that most may not think of, can you talk about what you like about living and being an artist in Memphis?
JI: I think one of the more profound things about being an artist in Memphis is how generous and kind the community is here. Generous with their time and kind with their energy. It’s a rare quality that I appreciate more as I get older.
There’s obvious benefits for being an artist in a large city, but Memphis offers me an opportunity to craft a vision for my life as an artist that isn’t predicated on the gallery grind and constant hustle. It’s also reasonably affordable, and I’m all for livability as an artist over the romanticized sacrifice.
That said, I also grew up in smaller towns, and I’m naturally drawn to that tempo. The slower pace of Memphis suits me, and I’ve been more productive in the last two years here than I’ve ever been before. My time in Philadelphia was great. It’s a very underrated city with a vibrant culture and a lot of wonderful people, but part of me never felt at home despite living there for eleven years.
I always ask this and it’s a bit corny but I keep doing it. It’s not exactly happy times in today’s world so can you chat about things that inspire you or that are making you happy and able to keep going ? Could be music, other artists, a book, etc.
JI: I would often think of this Guston quote when I first started painting:
“So when the 1960's came along I was feeling split, schizophrenic. The war, what was happening to America, the brutality of the world. What kind of man am I, sitting at home, reading magazines, going into a frustrated fury about everything—and then going into my studio to adjust a red to a blue.”
The tragedies of the world made the work I was doing in the studio feel trivial. That’s why I gravitated towards figuration at first. It felt like it had more political and existential relevance while the world was on fire.
As I’ve gotten older, my work has become increasingly abstract, and the studio has become more of a grounding force in my life that allows me to process some of the many things that swim through my head each day. It’s become an extension of my thought rather than an articulation of my ideas, and I feel in some way my studio practice expands my mind and makes me a better, more aware person. So the studio keeps me going.
But as far as inspiring materials go…I buy a lot of books, and two in particular really have my attention right now: the new Miyoko Ito book: Heart of Hearts by Pre-Echo Press, and Taschen’s Logo Modernism. I’ve been an Ito fan for years, but could never find that many images or much info on her, and this book is not only beautiful, but comprehensive with so many paintings that I’d never seen before. Logo Modernism is hundreds of pages of painting fodder for me…thousands of witty little design tricks that get my gears turning.
Can you share some studio shots ?
JI: I don’t have that many to share at the moment, but I’ve attached a few. One picture is from when my sister-in-law Hallie brought my nephew Alex over to talk about painting. He had just started to learn about art in school, and expressed an interest in painting. I dug out any old work I had to show him how my work has changed over the years. It was one of the more memorable studio visits I've had.
After your show with Tops, what else do you have planned for in 2024?
JI: A lot of painting. Seeing this work out of my studio and in the world for the first time has given me some fresh perspective, and I have a lot of new ideas to explore this year.
My wife and I are planning a trip this Spring to England and Scotland for our 40th birthdays. I’ve really grown to love a lot of the painters that came out of that region in the 1960-80s: Howard Hodgkin, Prunella Clough, William Crozier, Basil Beattie…I could go on and on. I’m looking forward to seeing more of that work in person.
I’ve had some preliminary discussions with a couple other spaces, but nothing concrete lined up at the moment. I don’t feel a lot of pressure to have a full calendar right now. I’m just going to continue to build on my momentum in the studio, grow my community, and trust the process. I feel like I’m making the best work of my life right now, and opportunities will come.
Who should we have on next?
JI: Sacha Ingber - we met at Skowhegan back in 2013. She is making some of my favorite sculptures right now, and is a great person and (new!) mom.