James Sterling Pitt
The Garden
November 6, 2021 – February 5, 2022
it takes time to walk
around a corner of the
house and throw away the
stone
—Larry Eigner, 1954
The Collected Poems of Larry Eigner Volume I: 1937-1958
Stanford University Press
I have watched a garden grow for a year. The process so slow I sometimes thought nothing would appear, the choice to keep working on it despite my doubts, euphoric sublime when colors and shapes appeared.
Spending time in this garden is not unlike spending time in the studio of James Sterling Pitt. Objects already assured of their completeness look over others in various states of growth. Tools mix with ephemeral inspirations, research notes and books. This universe, so familiar to me, always feels like such an internal and private space. An idea becomes an object many times over, unnoticed, until it reaches its final resting state and suddenly appears before my fresh eyes.
The newest pieces float in front of me—transcendent architecture I call them. Every piece invites me to enter through its doorway and explore another realm, to wander its hallways, meditating on the air I breathe there. Strange feelings come to mind when I stare at the small ceramic objects—similar to what I think on while reading science fiction. These works could be the structures built within the worlds of my imagination. Simultaneously, they inhabit my present one. I watch them grow in my backyard, surrounded by flowers and plants and birds, the dust from their construction mixing with the clay dirt of the southwest.
I watch the bright colors of summer fade into the earthy palette of autumn outside. As I sit in your studio again, I see the same colors inside and think another cycle is complete.
—Lauren Douglas, October 14, 2021
Santa Fe, New Mexico
The Garden by James Sterling Pitt
JAMES STERLING PITT
Untitled, 2021
acrylic on ceramic and wood
3¾ x 5 x 3½ inches
(JSP202112)
JAMES STERLING PITT
Untitled, 2021
acrylic on ceramic and wood
8 x 5½ x 3¼ inches
(JSP202113)
JAMES STERLING PITT
Untitled, 2021
acrylic on ceramic and wood
3¾ x 5½ x 6 inches
(JSP202114)
JAMES STERLING PITT
Untitled, 2021
acrylic on ceramic and wood
4½ x 6¾ x 4½ inches
(JSP202115)
JAMES STERLING PITT
Untitled, 2021
acrylic and Flashe on ceramic and wood
5½ x 5 x 3¾ inches
(JSP202116)
JAMES STERLING PITT
Untitled, 2021
acrylic and Flashe on ceramic and wood
6 x 6¾ x 7 inches
(JSP202117)
JAMES STERLING PITT
Untitled, 2021
acrylic on ceramic and wood
4½ x 10 x 7 inches
(JSP202118)
JAMES STERLING PITT
Untitled, 2021
acrylic and Flashe on ceramic and wood
4 x 6½ x 3 inches
(JSP202119)
JAMES STERLING PITT
Untitled, 2021
acrylic on ceramic and wood
6½ x 5½ x 2½ inches
(JSP202120)
The Garden by James Sterling Pitt
JAMES STERLING PITT
Untitled, 2021
acrylic and Flashe on ceramic and wood
6½ x 7 x 4 inches
(JSP202110)
JAMES STERLING PITT
Untitled, 2021
acrylic and Flashe on ceramic and wood
8 x 4½ x 5 inches
(JSP202111)
JAMES STERLING PITT
Untitled (Garden Sculpture 1), 2021
acrylic and Flashe on ceramic and wood
30½ x 20 x 22 inches
JAMES STERLING PITT
Untitled (Garden Sculpture 2), 2021
acrylic and Flashe on ceramic and wood
39 x 29 x 20 inches
The Garden by James Sterling Pitt
JAMES STERLING PITT
Untitled (Lightning-Arms/Sage/Rain), 2021
acrylic and Flashe on ceramic and wood
40½ x 37 x 3 inches
(JSP202106)
JAMES STERLING PITT
Untitled (Lavender/Sage), 2021
acrylic and Flashe on ceramic and wood
38 x 37 x 4 inches
(JSP202105)
JAMES STERLING PITT
Untitled (Cosmos-Dianthus-Scabiosa-Sage/Formation), 2021
acrylic and Flashe on ceramic and wood
39¼ x 41 x 3 inches
(JSP202107)
The Garden by James Sterling Pitt
Untitled (Garden Sculpture 1), 2021, acrylic and Flashe on ceramic and wood, 30½ x 20 x 22 inches
Untitled (Garden Sculpture 2), 2021, acrylic and Flashe on ceramic and wood, 39 x 29 x 20 inches
The Garden by James Sterling Pitt
About James Sterling Pitt
James Sterling Pitt’s artistic process is one of exploring and honoring the often abstract and unknown realms of memories and their emotional counterparts. For many years, Pitt’s artistic practice served as an autobiographical image bank, representing particular memories, places, and sensations. Fleeting sightings and experiences were reinterpreted as two and three dimensional reconstructions; standing as surrogates for images lost during momentary, perceptual shifts. Having suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car accident over fifteen years ago, this way of working began as a tool to help cope with short-term memory loss and difficulties with language. Through a process of drawing and sculpture, he was able to give form to the less concrete and harder to articulate aspects of the mind, such as something sensed or a fading memory.
Pitt’s new exhibition, The Garden, marks the debut of works in ceramic and wood and includes the largest scale sculptures the artist has made to date. The works retain their intuitive and organic nature, while shifts in scale and unexpected bursts of color punctuate the exhibition. Installed on the gallery walls, pedestals, table, and wall shelves, the sculptures invite an active exploration of the works in relation to one another and the space of the gallery while simultaneously pointing to the memory and perception of once tangible times and places.
James Sterling Pitt (b. 1977, Warwick, New York) earned his BFA from the University of New Mexico and his MFA from Mills College. Pitt’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions in San Francisco, Boston, and Berlin, and group exhibitions throughout the Bay Area and New York. His work is in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Berkeley Art Museum, and the Blanton Museum of Art.
The artist lives and works in Santa Fe, NM.
James Sterling Pitt
SELECT SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022
Blunk Space (forthcoming), Point Reyes Station, CA
2021
The Garden, Eli Ridgway Gallery, Bozeman, MT
2020
A Punching Bag and An Ocean, 5. Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2017
Forms on Forms, Ratio 3, San Francisco, CA
Points West, Et al., San Francisco, CA
Points East, Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, MA
2016
Points., College of Marin, Fine Arts Gallery, Kentfield, CA
2014
Hello Green Cosmos, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA
The University Galleries, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX
2013
The White Peacock Sings, Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, MA
2012
On a Clear Day We Were Lightning, Eli Ridgway, San Francisco, CA
2011
Romer Young Gallery in Berlin, w/ Kirk Stoller, Galerie Axel Obiger, Berlin
2010
it goes as it grows, Romer Young Gallery, San Francisco, CA
The Sea All Around Us, w/ Sean McFarland, Sight School, Oakland, CA
Project Room, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
2009
The On and On, ATA, San Francisco, CA
2000
LiftnoLimbo, John Sommers Gallery, Univ. of NM, Albuquerque, NM
SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
Salutary Sculpture, Laumeier Sculpture Park, Saint Louis, MO
2021
Christine Heindl, Sherry Markovitz, and James Sterling Pitt, Eli Ridgway Gallery, Bozeman, MT
Sea Change, Ratio3, San Francisco, CA
2020
Inaugural Exhibition, Eli Ridgway Gallery, Bozeman, MT
Over/Under, Marta, Los Angeles, CA
2019
New Material, Ratio3, San Francisco, CA
2018
Additive Measures, Slide Space 123, Mills College, Oakland, CA
Marin Collects, College of Marin, Kentfield, CA
2017
Way Bay, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA
2015
Off the Charts, 516 Arts, Albuquerque, NM
The Brain, Sun Valley Art Center, Sun Valley, ID
Retrospective, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA
2014
Color Shift, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA
2013
Introductions, Philip Slein Gallery, St. Louis, MO
Object Oriented (with Reuben Lorch-Miller, Roza Janiszewska), Royal NoneSuch Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Group Show, Eli Ridgway, San Francisco, CA
2012
Contemporary Watercolor, curated by Veronica Roberts, Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, NY
2011
Living Room, curated by Vanessa Blaikie and Joey Piziali, Parklife, San Francisco, CA
Stacked/Multiplied, curated by Devon Bella and Katie Hood Morgan, Adobe Books Backroom Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2010
Front + Center, curated by Vanessa Blaikie, Joey Piziali and Jessica Brier, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
PAPER!AWESOME!, curated by Brion Nuda Rosch, Baer Ridgway Exhibitions, San Francisco, CA
Hyperspaces, curated by David Kasprzak, Parklife, San Francisco, CA
AWARDS AND ARTIST RESIDENCIES
2014
Kala Art Institute; Artist Fellowship, Berkeley, CA
2010
Djerassi Artist in Residence; Winter Residency, Woodside, CA
2008
Djerassi Artist in Residence; Winter Residency, Woodside, CA
2006
Djerassi Artist Fellowship, Woodside, CA
Djerassi Artist in Residence; April-May, Woodside, CA
2002
Tretethen Merit Award, Mills College, Oakland, CA
2000
Vera Nolan Award, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2017
McQuaid, Cate. “Sending messages in code at Steven Zevitas Gallery” The Boston Globe. February 23.
2015
Smith, Claude. “James Sterling Pitt: The Ritual of Remembering” New American Paintings. September.
2014
Baker, Kenneth. “Pitt at Anglim” San Francisco Chronicle. February.
Quinton, Luke. “Artists Laurie Frick and James Sterling Pitt map the brain in joint exhibit” Austin AmericanStatesman. February 2014.
2013
Allen, Gwen. “James Sterling Pitt”, ARTFORUM. February
McQuaid, Kate. “Low Key Charm”, Boston Globe. November.
2012
Baker, Kenneth. “In Among the Pitts” San Francisco Chronicle. November.
Turner, Chérie Louise. “Nov 2012 Artist Profile, James Sterling Pitt” art ltd. November.
“James Sterling Pitt” New American Paintings, Pacific Coast, Issue #103. December .
2010
Baker, Kenneth. “In Among the Pitts.” San Francisco Chronicle. November.
Chun, Kimberly. “James Sterling Pitt: Ping Pong Gallery Solo Show” San Francisco Chronicle. October.
Scholtz, Zachary Royer. “Front + Center: Weather Streams” Art Practical. January
COLLECTIONS
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Blanton Museum of Art
About Eli Ridgway Gallery
Eli Ridgway Gallery is a Bozeman art gallery specializing in contemporary art by local and national artists working in a variety of mediums, including works by Anne Appleby, Rollin Beamish, James Chronister, Amy Ellingson, Christine Heindl, Wolfgang Ganter, Sherry Markovitz, James Sterling Pitt, Dean Smith, Andy Vogt, and Griff Williams.
Eli Ridgway Gallery was founded in 2008 in San Francisco, CA with a roster of local, national and international emerging artists in conjunction with a dynamic program of events that included musical and spoken-word performances, poetry readings, panel discussions, and student workshops. A gathering place for artists, curators, and collectors to share ideas, the gallery became an important part of the Bay Area arts community while presenting early solo exhibitions by Elisheva Biernoff, Deana Lawson, and Matthew Palladino among many others.
In 2020, Eli Ridgway Gallery re-opened a physical gallery location in the historic brewery district of Bozeman, Montana in the bottling plant of the famed Lehrkind Brewery (est. 1895). Representing a mix of local, national, and international artists, the gallery aims to present a dynamic range of conceptually driven artistic practices in a variety of mediums while providing a location and schedule of events that contribute to the growth and dynamism of the contemporary arts infrastructure in Montana.