One to Watch

James Himber

Originally from the Texas panhandle, James Himber features cast-offs, misfits, and loners in his paintings which explore the relationship between abstraction and representation. Influenced by Velazquez, Goya, Rembrandt, Tarkovsky, Atget, and Frank, Himber’s works are like episodes from intriguing, even unsettling, stories (not surprising for someone who has a double major in English and Philosophy). His paintings have an emotional and psychological intensity rare in such a young artist. As he says, his portraits deliberately avert “that embalmed feeling of perfect anatomy.” This extremely talented young painter has an MFA from New York University and a sure understanding already of his craft as a painter.