LOIS LAMBERT GALLERY
JIM JENKINS: Currents
MAy 20 - July 8, 2023
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 20, 6-9PM
Jim Jenkins, A Fine Line, globe, birch, plexiglass, lead, aluminum, steel, motors, 37” x 26” x 8”
Lois Lambert Gallery presents Currents, the most recent exhibition of work by kinetic sculptor Jim Jenkins.
Jenkins’ earliest memories of making art come from a television show from the 1960’s, called “Learn to Draw.” Every week, Jenkins would sit down and follow along step-by-step, copying the drawings featured on the show. He later became fascinated with various scientists and inventors. These two interests led Jenkins to examine the connection between art and technology.
When asked to describe his artwork, Jenkins says, “I feel like I’m making all the things I wanted to make as a child, but now I know how.” Jenkins is most interested in the process of creating something that has never existed before. He sculpts inanimate objects from metal, wood, and plastics and brings them to life with motors and counter-weights, carefully orchestrating the movement of each object. Jenkins describes himself as part sculptor, part engineer and part choreographer.
The inspiration for Jenkins’ most recent works comes out of societal observations from the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the pieces in the exhibition, titled A Fine Line depicts a perfectly balanced globe that totters back and forth along a high wire, suspended above a chasm of churning waves and hovering birds. This piece represents the precarious state of the world as we navigate each day, using the globe as a symbol not only for the world but humankind in general.
The mechanisms in Jenkins’ work are based on simple technology, while the finished forms are created using complex sculptural techniques. Jenkins has a fully equipped studio, which allows him to sculpt in wood, metal, and plastics. Each piece is thought out and drawn in his sketchbook. After which, he creates a mockup out of cardboard and connects the pieces to verify that all the moving parts of the sculpture will work. Jenkins equips each sculpture with a motorized shaft that is capable of moving either up and down, or back and forth. Once that is in place, Jenkins challenges himself through trial and error to create different ranges of motion. Jenkins was trained as an artist but never as an engineer, despite working with physics and machinery.
Jim Jenkins has a BFA from Murray State University in Kentucky and an MFA from Syracuse University. In 2018, Jenkins retired as the Head of the Sculpture department at California State University, Fullerton, where he has a piece in their permanent collection entitled “A Place for Everything, and Everything in its Place.” His work has been shown throughout California and the United States, including the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach, CA and is part of permanent collections at The Mechanical Art & Design Museum in Stratford-upon-Avon, UK; Irvine Valley College in Irvine, CA; the Museum of Neon Art in Los Angeles, CA; and the Southwest Aviation Complex at Van Nuys Airport, CA. Jenkins is the co-author of the book “Motion Motion: Kinetic Art.”
Lois Lambert Gallery, Bergamot Station
2525 Michigan Ave., #E3, Santa Monica, CA 90404
(310) 829-6990 | info@loislambertgallery.com
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10:00am - 6:00pm