Jim Hodges

Jim Hodges (born October 16, 1957) is a New York-based installation artist. He is known for his mixed-media sculptures and collages that involve delicate artificial flowers, mirrors, chains as spiderwebs, and cut-up jeans.

Early life and education Jim Hodges was born in Spokane, Washington and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Fort Wright College in 1980. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, in 1986. That year he met art collector Elaine Dannheisser who let him use a studio in the basement of her foundation on Duane Street in exchange for working as a part-time art handler. During this time he abandoned his original medium of painting and started exploring materiality; this became his first major artistic crisis because he had realized that his concepts weren't connecting with his paintings. His works frequently employed different materials and techniques, from ready-made objects to more traditional media, such as metal chains, artificial flowers, gold leaf, and mirrored elements. Hodges' conceptual practice, which addressed overlooked and obvious touchstones of life, reflected human experience and mortality. As seen in "With the Wind" (1997) and "You" (1997), he consistently incorporated embroidery to magnify notions of domesticity, a mother's presence, and early notions of femininity.

Originally influenced by the woods of his hometown of Spokane, nature plays a reoccurring role throughout his works. In the years following his graduation from Pratt Institute, Hodges struggled to develop a theme within his works that would express his role as an artist. His use of color disappeared during this period, when he abandoned painting and gradually developed a process of creation through destruction.

Saliva-transfer drawings In 1992 Hodges incorporated himself into the material of his pieces through the use of his saliva. He drew ink doodles of spider webs, clovers, chains, lines, spirals, and a matrix of dots, then blurred them with his saliva by pressing the wet images against another paper and created different printed impressions. Hodges said that by using his saliva with his materials, it revealed a "sensuous act", where his hand would draw the images and his mouth would transmit it. This expressed Hodges' empowerment, and was intended to disrupt the preconception of bodily fluids as something horrifying. Hodges had received more than one hundred translations in over seventy languages; the only country which refused to participate was the United States. Hodges described this work as a fragment of a continuum which could be added or reworked endlessly. Hodges attempted to mirror the content that shaped the life of Gonzalez-Torres before he lost his battle with AIDS in 1996. The retrospective was accompanied by a large-format appraisal of Hodges' work, edited by Jeffrey Grove and Olga Viso.

Hodges' piece Don't Be Afraid was installed at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. in 2005. A recent large-scale sculpture, look and see (a nine-ton stainless steel abstraction of camouflage) was purchased by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York on October 30, 2006.

Solo exhibitions

2022: "Impossible Flower," Baldwin Gallery, Aspen 2022: "Location Proximity," Gladstone Gallery, New York 2020: "LOVE POWER," Massimo De Carlo, Hong Kong, PRC 2019: "Unearthed," Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, California 2019: "Jim Hodges," Pizzuti Collection of CMA, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio 2018: "Jim Hodges: silence stillness," Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco, California 2017: "turning pages in the book of love / voltando pagine nel libro dell’amore", Massimo de Carlo Gallery, Milan, Italy 2017: "Tracing the contour of our days," Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, Colorado 2016: "With Liberty and Justice for All," rooftop installation, The Contemporary Austin, Texas 2016: "I dreamed a world and called it Love.," Gladstone Gallery, New York 2016: "Jim Hodges," Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, United Kingdom 2015: "Jim Hodges," Gladstone Gallery, Brussels 2014: "Jim Hodges: Give More Than You Take," Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California [traveled from: Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas (2013); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2014); Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2014)] 2014: "Jim Hodges," Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco, California 2014: "With Liberty and Justice For All (A Work in Progress)," Aspen Art Museum, Colorado 2012: "Jim Hodges: Drawings," Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, Colorado 2011: "Jim Hodges," Gladstone Gallery, New York 2010: "Jim Hodges: New Work," Dieu Donné, New York 2010: "Jim Hodges," Gladstone Gallery, Brussels 2009: "Jim Hodges: you will see these things," Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado 2009: "Jim Hodges: Love Etc.," Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris [traveled to: Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice (2010); Camden Arts Centre, London (2010)] 2008: "Jim Hodges," CRG Gallery, New York 2008: "Jim Hodges," Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, United Kingdom 2008: "Jim Hodges," Anthony Meier Fine Art, San Francisco, California 2005: "Jim Hodges: this line to you," Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain 2005: "Look and See," Creative Time Commission at the Ritz Carlton Plaza Battery Park, New York 2005: "Directions - Jim Hodges," Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. 2005: "Jim Hodges," Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Ohio 2004: Jim Hodges: "Don’t be Afraid," Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts 2003: "Jim Hodges," Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York [traveled to: Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina; Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Ohio; Austin Museum of Art, Austin, Texas (2004)] 2003: "Jim Hodges," Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, United Kingdom 2003: "Returning," Art Pace, San Antonio, Texas 2003: "colorsound," Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts 2002: "Jim Hodges: Constellation of an Ordinary Day," Jundt Art Museum, Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington 2002: "Jim Hodges: Subway Music Box," Day-Ellis Gallery, Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, Spokane, Washington 2002: "this and this," CRG Gallery, New York 2002: "like this," Dieu Donné Papermill, New York 2001: "Jim Hodges," Camargo Vilaça, São Paulo, Brazil 2001: "Jim Hodges: 3 Drawings," CRG Gallery, New York 2000: "Capp Street Project: Subway Music Box," Tecoah Bruce Gallery of the Oliver Art Center, California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, California 2000: "Jim Hodges," Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco, California 1999: "Jim Hodges," Miami Art Museum, Miami, Florida 1999: "Jim Hodges: Cool Blue," Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles, California 1999: "every way," Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois [traveled to: Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts] 1998: "Jim Hodges: Recent Work," CRG Gallery, New York 1998: "Jim Hodges: Welcome," Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri 1997: "Jim Hodges," Galerie Ghislaine Hussenot, Paris, France 1997: "Jim Hodges: no betweens and more" SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico 1996: "yes," Marc Foxx, Santa Monica, California 1996: "States," Fabric Workshop & Museum, Philadelphia 1995: "Jim Hodges," CRG Art, Inc., New York 1995: "Jim Hodges," Bard Center for Curatorial Studies and Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York 1994: "Everything For You," Interim Art, London 1994: "A Diary Of Flowers," CRG Art, Inc., New York 1994: "New AIDS Drug," Het Apollohuis, Eindhoven, The Netherlands 1993: "Our Perfect World," Grey Art Gallery, New York 1991: "White Room," White Columns, New York 1989: "Historia Abscondita," Gonzaga University Gallery, Spokane, Washington 1986: "Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition," Pratt Institute, New York

Gallery