ABOUT THE ARTIST
James Wolf grew up in a semi-rural township just outside of Detroit, Michigan. Nature and his father’s industrial commercial art studio, and formal courses at Cranbrook Academy formed his earliest artistic experiences. He closely studied the French Impressionists and Chinese and Japanese painters while at Oakland University. Ultimately, his sculpting instructor, the renowned European artist, Morris Brose, most acutely influenced his studies. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, he traveled throughout Central America, where his time in Honduras and Panama most directly influenced the color, light and representational elements of his work. Soon after his move to Boston in 1982 and throughout the 1980s, he exhibited in various Boston galleries.
In 1990, he moved to the Cape Cod village of Cotuit with his wife and two sons, where he opened the James Wolf Gallery in 1992. In 1993, he organized and performed in two World Music Concerts held at Freedom Hall in Cotuit to test the idea of a community arts center. In 1994, he founded Cotuit Center for the Arts, an artist’s work and exhibit space, offering workshops in various 2 and 3 dimensional art media, writing, photography, and computer graphics. In 1995, he was invited to sit on the board of DIFFA (Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS) Boston chapter, and to direct and curate their 2 galleries at the Boston Design Center. In 1995, he closed the James Wolf Gallery and established a formal exhibit space at the art center.
In August 2010, James joined forces with artists Jackie Reeves and Richard Neal to create a new painting studio at the Old Schoolhouse in Barnstable Village. This vibrant, new setting is where he creates all of his new abstract and figurative work.