"My current paintings are about gentrification, growth and the resulting construction sites which I witness daily from walks through my home neighborhood."
After teaching painting, drawing and ancient art history for 38 years, Jim Conaway is now a full-time artist with a studio in the Traffic Zone building, a restored 1886 warehouse cooperatively owned and shared by twenty-five Minnesota artists. Jim and his wife, Tomie, have traveled extensively throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Jim has been represented by Groveland Gallery since 1973 and has shown extensively throughout the United States, including the Walker Art Center, the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Scottsdale Center for the Arts.
Artist Statement:
My current paintings are about gentrification, growth and the resulting construction sites which I witness daily from walks through my home neighborhood of Nicollet Island East Bank and my studio neighborhood of the North Loop. I see these images of construction from up close and from afar. I see them in the bright mid-day sun and at night when the construction sites are illuminated by bright security spotlights which alter the shapes and distort the perspective silhouetted against the night sky.
These paintings are made in my studio from a culmination of construction images excavated from my memory and my sixty years of experience as a visual artist.