Terrell James. Myth

Myth is the title of Terrell James' solo exhibition, opening in the Milanese spaces of Cadogan Gallery from 11 December 2024 to 15 February 2025. After the solo booth presented at the 2023 edition of miart, James renews her collaboration with Cadogan by presenting a new series of works that marks an evolution in her painting practice

As a result of a creative process that transforms the work into an instinctive exercise of the act of painting, traces, imprints and evocations appear on her canvases. Focused on the research into color, James' production emphasises her subjects thanks to her study of tones, as in How a Poem Begins in which fragments of a landscape constructed by brushstrokes of blue, turquoise and teal emerge. Her work is deeply introspective and offers an abstract impression of reality, presenting a layering of forms and lines that allude to novel cities and architectures.

James has always employed an abstract language, but in the 15 paintings of Myth the shift towards new research into form, line and space becomes visible. Myth, conceived by the artist as a fundamental key to understanding human nature, is an omnipresent reference in her latest series, which features sharper forms, recognizable landscapes, and colors more aligned with reality, as seen in the works Sovereign and This Place, This Time. 
The artist herself describes the works exhibited at Cadogan Gallery as abstractions aimed at a more structured approach to form, which does not neglect mythical references intertwined with new urban landscapes.

Terrell James lives and works in Houston. Her works are held in prestigious collections, such as those of the Boston Museum of Art, the Dallas Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. She has been represented by Cadogan since 2015.