James Siena is a New York based artist whose complex, rule-based linear abstractions have situated him firmly within the trajectory of modern American art.  Compared to art world luminaries such as Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, and Alfred Jensen, his artwork is driven by self-imposed predetermined sets of rules, or “visual algorithms,” which find their end-result in intensely concentrated, vibrantly-colored, freehand geometric patterns.  Mr. Siena works across a diverse range of media, including lithography, etching, woodcut, engraving, drawing, and painting.

Mr. Siena’s work is held in numerous important public and private collections across the United States, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Mr. Siena’s work has been featured in nearly 120 solo and group exhibitions since 1981, including the 2004 Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art.  He has received many distinctions and awards throughout his career, including the Award in Art from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York (2000); the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Competition Award (1999); and The New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Painting (1994).  Mr. Siena was also the recipient of the Edward Durrell Stone Award (1977) and the Charles Goodwin Sands Medal (1979) from Cornell University.  Most recently, he was awarded the 2009-2010 Cornell University Eissner Artist of the Year Award.

In 2004, Mr. Siena completed an artist-in-residency program at Yaddo, and was elected to their Board of Directors shortly thereafter. 

In addition to his practice as an artist, Mr. Siena has lectured and taught at institutions throughout the United States, including the Cleveland Institute of Art; Cooper Union School of Art, New York; Cornell University; Massachusetts College of Art; New School University, New York; New York Studio School, New York; Rutgers University, New Jersey; San Francisco Art Institute; School of Visual Arts, New York; University of Iowa, Iowa City; Virginia Commonwealth University; and Yale University.  In 2010, he will be lecturing at Pratt Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, New York.

James Siena (b. 1957, California) received his BFA from Cornell University in 1979 and moved to New York City in 1981.  He landed his first solo exhibition in New York in 1996 and joined PaceWildenstein in 2004. 

James Siena lives and works in New York City and Western Massachusetts.