James Siena

(American, born 1957)

James Siena is a contemporary American artist known for his complex abstract paintings and prints. Siena composes his works using a set of rules he calls “visual algorithms,” to create asymmetrical patterns that resemble floating diagrams. “At a certain point I wanted to make drawings and works that act as machines,” he said. “The way they act as machines is you have to find your way into them and find your way out of them. As you undo the making of them they come to life.” Born on October 28, 1957 in Oceanside, CA, he grew up in Washington, D.C. and went on to attend Cornell University. After finishing school in 1979, Siena moved to New York where he was mentored by both Alan Saret and Chuck Close about how to navigate the art world. He continues to live and work in New York, NY. Today, the artist’s works are held in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Hammer Museum at UCLA, among others.