James Munce

I think that I am primarily a storyteller. My function as a visual artist is to create a two-dimensional formal structure that will best contain the story being told. I am always trying to create a sense of space that has somehow been altered or transformed by an event. -James Munce

James Munce recieved his BFA in printmaking at the Minneapolis School of Art in 1966. He completed his MFA degree in printmaking at Indiana University in 1971. After teaching in Hawaii for a year, Jim moved to Manhattan and began his long-term career as a professor at Kansas State University, in printmaking.

"During the last 30 years of the twentieth century, Jim has devoted his professional life to creating prints. Primarilly his subjects have been taken from Christian literature - the time honored subject of Michelangelo, Dürer, and da Vinci. Unlike these earlier masters, Jim's work exhibits a sense of humanity, a sense of humor, and a sense of the twentieth century. Jim is a serious artist who studies his subjects thoroughly and then combines this knowledge with his fertile imagination to create a work of art that trancends time. He treats each story as if it were simply literature, embellishes it with his own creativity, and removes it from time by juxtaposing elements and details of the past with the present. The final result is one common to all enduring art - it enables the viewer to be drawn into the scene and feel a connection to the artist's mind and soul."
- essay courtesy of Julie Strecker

A book of selected James Munce's prints and drawings
is available for $20 from Strecker-Nelson Gallery.