James Clar

Bio   |   
Selected Works   |   
Public Art   |   
Available Artworks for James Clar

Bio

James Clar (b. 1979, Wisconsin, USA; lives and works in Manila, Philippines) is a light and media artist interested in new technological production processes and their application to artistic narrative forms. His works utilize the information systems that saturate our daily existence, provoking contemplation on how they shape our understanding of culture and ourselves. By understanding light and the ways we see, his artistic lens explores the modulating effects of perception and narrative dynamics.

Clar was an artist in residence at Eyebeam Atelier in New York, Fabrica in Italy, and the FedEx Institute of Technology/Lantana Projects in Memphis. His artwork has been included in exhibitions at Glucksman Museum (Dublin), The New Museum of Contemporary Arts (New York), Pera Museum (Istanbul), Cam Francis Museum (Barcelona), MACBA (Barcelona), and SeMA (Seoul). He has been commissioned to develop large-scale installations for 21c Museum Hotels (Oklahoma), Parasol Unit Foundation for the Arts (UK), and Fraport Headquarters (Frankfurt).

James Clar (b. 1979, Wisconsin, USA; lives and works in Manila, Philippines) is a light and media artist interested in new technological production processes and their application to artistic narrative forms. His works utilize the information systems that saturate our daily existence, provoking contemplation on how they shape our understanding of culture and ourselves. By understanding light and the ways we see, his artistic lens explores the modulating effects of perception and narrative dynamics.

Clar was an artist in residence at Eyebeam Atelier in New York, Fabrica in Italy, and the FedEx Institute of Technology/Lantana Projects in Memphis. His artwork has been included in exhibitions at Glucksman Museum (Dublin), The New Museum of Contemporary Arts (New York), Pera Museum (Istanbul), Cam Francis Museum (Barcelona), MACBA (Barcelona), and SeMA (Seoul). He has been commissioned to develop large-scale installations for 21c Museum Hotels (Oklahoma), Parasol Unit Foundation for the Arts (UK), and Fraport Headquarters (Frankfurt).

Selected Works

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Selected Works

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Cloud Seed (Winter), Cloud Seed (Spring), Cloud Seed (Summer), Cloud Seed (Autumn)
2021
8778
1
generative software, camera, television, computer
57.09h x 35.43w in • 145h x 90w cm
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Ball & Chain
2009 - 2010
3427
1
car headlights, chain, LED lighting
35.43h in x 35.43w in x 35.43d in • 90h cm x 90w cm x 90d cm
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Edition of 3 + 1 Artist's Proof

24 car headlights are configured into a sphere. LED lighting is integrated into the headlights and the power cable interwoven with a thick chain that connects it to the power outlet.

This sculptural piece is a commentary on energy use. The amount that we can do is limited by the amount of energy we can spend. In effect, energy is our ball and chain.
Details
Thermal Energy
2013
3431
1
LEDs, filters, fence
62.99h in x 47.24w in x 35.43d in • 160h cm x 120w cm x 90d cm
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An array of lights intersect through a fence at an angle, with the colors visualizing hot air rising and cold air sinking.

Thermal Energy describes energy currents and the movement of air. This invisible force fills all open spaces and moves through fences and borders. It creates the breezes that move around the earth, changing the weather, mixing temperatures and gasses, and sustaining patterns of life.
Exhibited at:
'SEEK' (2014), Carroll / Fletcher, London
'Peace Minus One' (2015), Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
Details
Still Life (under water)
2014
3430
1
acrylic, mineral oil, laptop, desk lamp
31.50h in x 49.21w in x 17.72d in • 80h cm x 125w cm x 45d cm
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A laptop and a lamp sit on a desk, completely submerged in liquid while continuing to work. Still Life takes a familiar scenario of contemporary everyday life and by altering the physical environment in which it exists, changes it into something surreal, like in a dream, floating, frozen in time but functioning in place.

Exhibited at: “SEEK”, Carroll / Fletcher, London
Details
Simulation of a Simulation NY
2016
3498
1
TV, camera, motor, 3D printed parts, computer
dimensions variable
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A camera module takes a New York snow globe and shakes it. The camera module is connected to a television to create live animations of the Statue of Liberty and New York City in a constant snowstorm. Instead of using computers to generate animations, real materials and real physics are used to create live generative animations situated between the real and virtual.

Exhibited at: "False Awakenings" (2016) at Jane Lombard Gallery, New York
Details
Binary Star
2016
3428
1
LEDs, filters, wire
74.80h in x 74.80w cm • 190h cm x 190w cm
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Binary Star is an artwork about hidden energies. A binary star is two stars locked in rotation with each other. Here the artwork shows their gravity and energy revolving and pulsing through each other. The artwork can be seen as a visualization of a cosmological phenomenon, or it could be seen as a representation of the energy two people have for each other.
Details
Triple Oscillation
2016
3432
1
led lights, filters
74.80h in x 74.80w cm • 190h cm x 190w cm
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Overlapping and weaving lines of light create a kaleidoscopic spatial looping pattern, like a continuously unfolding shape.

Exhibited at: 'False Awakenings', Jane Lombard Gallery, New York
Details
Awake While You Sleep
2016
3496
1
LEDs filters
74.80d in • 190d cm
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A visualization showing mental perception versus physical reality. The work shows you dreaming of the daytime while you're asleep at night.

Exhibited at: 'False Awakenings' (2016) at Jane Lombard Gallery, New York
Details
River Of Time
2016
3434
1
Industrial Conveyor Belts, Steel, Acrylic, LEDs, Computer
168h in x 240w in x 240d in • 426.72h cm x 609.6w cm x 609.6d cm
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River of Time is a permanent installation created for 21c Museum Hotel in Oklahoma City, in an historical Ford Model T production building.

The installation uses conveyor belts whose top surfaces are replaced with semi-transparent colored sheets of acrylic, to create moving panels that flow along the conveyor paths like an animated river. The ‘river’ flows up and over the center of the installation like a waterfall. Behind the waterfall is a large clock that shows the current time through LED lights that shine through the panels of acrylic as they pass in front.

The conveyor belts provide a material link to the building’s past history as an assembly line while creating a dynamic visual installation that displays the current time. The installation mixes digital technology and mechanical components to create an dynamic sculpture of a flowing river in a reference to the past, present, and future.
Details
Portal (NYC to MIA)
2018
3497
1
street lamppost, crowd barricade, LEDs, filter
63h in x 110.23w in x 63d in • 160h cm x 280w cm x 160h cm
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A commissioned work for a collector who moved from New York to Miami. A street barricade and lamppost, materials from New York City, are bent and warped as they enter a spherical light structure. The sculpture is a portal from New York to Miami. Two 3d printed birds (red finches, local to the New York region) sit on the lamppost.
Details
We Met Online
2019
3436
1
Two Alpacas, Touch Reactive LED floor running Conway’s Game of Life simulation
dimensions variable
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Two alpacas walk on a touch-sensor LED floor running Conway’s Game of Life program, their movement and interaction generating patterns beneath them. The alpacas act as physical avatars within a virtual space, while alluding to the psychedelic mind-spaces explored by the pre-Andean Civilizations that domesticated them.

Their movements on the interactive floor influence the evolution of the pixelized cellular automata beneath them. The phrase “we met online” is an increasingly common statement on the initial interaction for contemporary human relationships.

Exhibited at: “Fifth World Problems” pop-up exhibition during Frieze NY at Studio 525 (former space of Andrea Rosen Gallery) in Chelsea NYC

Special Thanks:
Studio 525
WorldStage Inc
Shalimar Alpacas
Jane Lombard Gallery
Saadia Zahid
Elisabeth Johs
Rami Farook
Josh Goldberg
Aaron Parach
Matthew Schreiber
Shelly Sabel
Peter Smith
Matt Ward
Praise Shadows Art Partners
Details
Noise Field #1b
2019-2020
3439
1
controlled laser, water system
dimensions variable
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For his presentation in Art Fair Philippines 2020, in partnership with AC Motors, James Clar creates a laser and liquid installation titled “Noise Field”. Using a laserscanner and a sprinkler system, Clar creates a naturally generated field of visual static. Visitors are invited to step into “Noise Field” to experience what happens when these lasers cross paths with the fine mist.
Details
Without You There’s Less Data
2020
3437
1
Generative Software, Screen Array
dimensions variable
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A single cloud is algorithmically generated and hovers between two screens. One side at high resolution, while the other is reduced information and pixelated. (A second version shows the cloud increasing and decreasing in resolution through a vertical stack). The relationships we have and the people in our lives can make us experience the world in higher resolution.
Details

Selected Exhibitions

MANILA
13 July - 12 August 2023
Essence Distilled: Homage to Arturo Luz
Silverlens, Manila
Silverlens proudly announces 'Essence Distilled: Homage to Arturo Luz,' a group exhibition curated by Yael Buencamino that pays tribute to the venerated National Artist of the Philippines, Arturo Luz. The exhibition brings together the work of ten artists: Poklong Anading, Tina Bonoan, James Clar, Lou Lim, Arturo Luz, Gary-Ross Pastrana, Jon Pettyjohn, Rachel Rillo, Ryan Villamael, and Eric Zamuco.
NEW YORK
09 March - 29 April 2023
By Force of Nature
Silverlens, New York
Silverlens New York is pleased to present its first solo exhibition with James Clar, opening 9 March 2023. Titled By Force of Nature, the exhibition tracks the American artist’s trans-pacific move to his parents’ home country, the Philippines.
DUBAI
09 March - 13 March 2022
Art Dubai 2022
Madinat Jumeirah Conference & Events Centre, Dubai, UAE
Silverlens presents a tight selection of artists from southeast Asia and the diaspora working across generations, locations, and media - James Clar (b. 1979, USA, of Philippine heritage), Maria Taniguchi (b. 1981, Philippines), Mit Jai Inn (b. 1960, Thailand).
SINGAPORE
15 January - 23 January 2022
S.E.A. Focus: All States No State
Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Singapore
Silverlens presents Dina Gadia, Yee I-Lann, Maria Taniguchi, and Mit Jai Inn in All States No State. In S.E.A., artists often come together through informal networks, establishing communities and collectives that become long-term structures of artistic collaboration and exchange. Such is the practice of all three artists. The title is taken from a series of flags of imagined countries made by Gadia.
MANILA
26 June - 24 July 2021
Share Location
Silverlens, Manila
A collection of works that analyze the experience of space (both real and virtual) and how the outside world influences inner identity. The world went into a period of mass transition, and on top of that the artist relocated from New York to Manila (in the middle of the pandemic). Accordingly, the works span observations and cultural remnants and experiences from the USA and the Philippines.
MANILA
20 February - 23 February 2020
Noise Field #1b
Art Fair Philippines, The Link, Makati
For his special presentation in Art Fair Philippines 2020 in partnership with AC Motors, James Clar creates a laser and liquid installation titled “Noise Field”. Using a laserscanner and a sprinkler system, Clar creates a naturally generated field of visual static.
MANILA
17 August - 14 September 2019
Noise Field #1
Silverlens, Manila
'Noise Field #1' is James Clar's first solo exhibition in the Philippines and with Silverlens.

Public Art

25 Mar 2022
I Can't Tell You What I Don't Know, Only That I Don't Know
I Can’t Tell You What I Don’t Know, Only That I Don’t Know is a largescale installation by media artist James Clar in collaboration with the award winning giant parol team from Santa Lucia in San Fernando, Philippines. Organized by Silverlens Galleries in partnership with Ayala Museum, this new artwork will debut publicly in front of the newly renovated museum building during Art Fair Philippines 2022. The work is also presented under OpenSpace, Ayala Museum's public art exhibition program.
Ayala Museum, Makati, Philippines

Selected Press

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