Jim Lively

Jim Lively is a skilled figurist with a knack for uncanny juxtaposition and hybrid, technicolor landscapes. His richly laden portraits of the American Southwest meet the raw imagery of popular culture, often from the complex and colorful world of high fashion, creating a sublime fusion between the natural environment and the constructed terrain of television advertising. He renders his works in a warming palette of burnt orange, umber, chrome and gold. In other works, we see minute detail – a deep splash of color, overlapping ribbons of paint, or the atmospheric tint of sunset – looming large and pushing the work into abstraction. Although acrylic on canvas is his primary chosen medium, Lively also occasionally works in installation.

A former lawyer, Lively’s renewed interest in painting took hold after the death of his brother in 2008. He currently resides in Dallas, TX, the city of his birth, in a mid-century style home he affectionately calls Atomic Ranch.