JAMES McMANUS: COLLAGE MEETS PAINTING, NEAR AN OCEAN BREEZE

Now based in upstate New York after living and working for many years in the Caribbean, James McManus, who is known as “Jim,” is an artist who routinely integrates collage elements into his paintings, partly for their graphic character and quality and partly to create compositions that he describes as “two-dimensional dioramas.” Above: “Swell Event,” 2013, acrylic paint, pencil, glue, and photo paper on canvas, 30 x 22 inches. Photo by Bill Westmoreland, courtesy of the photographer and and James McManus

AN ARTIST USES THE TECHNIQUE DECISIVELY TO SHAPE AND SUGGEST STORIES

by Edward M. Gómez

Today, James McManus, who is known to everyone, including his twin brother, as “Jim,” lives with his wife, the artist Laura McManus (brutjournal, October 2021), on a bank of the east branch of the Delaware River in the town of Hancock, in upstate New York. Nearby, the west branch of that waterway serves as the border with neighboring Pennsylvania.

James (“Jim”) McManus, “West Bay 1,” 2013, acrylic paint, pencil, glue, photo paper on canvas, 17 x 17 inches. Photo by Bill Westmoreland, courtesy of the photographer and the artist

The two artists occupy a two-story building that was designed to include a retail space on its upper floor, which faces a street; that floor houses the couple’s gallery and a shop selling design objects and imported kilims. Below, its lower level opens up onto a wide, long back yard that stretches out to meet the water’s edge.