In James Gortner’s work, painting
becomes a site of transformation. Here, past lives of materials, images,
and intentions converge. His surfaces are sculptural and layered,
composed of reconstructed artist's paintings and reclaimed paint with
history embedded in their very texture. Drawing from spiritual practice,
dream logic, and art historical tradition, he forges visual languages
that reflect the chaos, hope, and interconnection of the present moment.
In James Gortner’s work, painting
becomes a site of transformation. Here, past lives of materials, images,
and intentions converge. His surfaces are sculptural and layered,
composed of reconstructed artist's paintings and reclaimed paint with
history embedded in their very texture. Drawing from spiritual practice,
dream logic, and art historical tradition, he forges visual languages
that reflect the chaos, hope, and interconnection of the present moment.
Gortner studied at The Art Students League of New York and received
his MFA from Columbia University. His work has been exhibited at the
Fisher Landau Center for the Arts (New York), Mana Contemporary (New
Jersey), San Bernardino County Museum (California), the Museum of
Contemporary Art MAC (Chile), and the RW Norton Art Museum (Louisiana).
His work has been featured in print in New American Paintings, New
American Art Collector Magazine, Men’s Journal, Archatectural Digest,
and The Berliner, among other publications. His art is in numerous
private collections, including President Jiang Zemin of China and
actress Reese Witherspoon. James Gortner lives and works in the West
Village of New York City.
Knight Paintings (2021-ongoing)
The Knight paintings draw on the West Village’s history as a site of intellectual friction and strategic improvisation, where chess functioned not as leisure but as a public negotiation of power, risk, and survival. In and around Washington Square Park, chess became a visible language of thinking—played openly, contested socially, and shaped by non-linear moves within rigid systems. The knight, the only chess piece that defies linear movement, operates here as a conceptual figure rather than a literal symbol: a form of intelligence that advances indirectly, disrupts expectations, and navigates constraint through invention.
Painted with recycled paint, these paintings treat material itself as a strategic condition. This unique pigment, carrying the psychic residue of prior artists’ use, is redirected onto the artist’s canvas, echoing the knight’s oblique movement and its ability to generate possibility from limitation. This material reuse functions as both process and position—an acknowledgment of environmental crisis that avoids illustration in favor of action.
The works play with art historical references, most notably Modernism, Surrealism, and Pop Art. The color explorations in the work issue far-flung references, including Richard Diebenkorn, Chagall, and Warhol. The striking change in style between these works and other bodies of work by the artist recalls the chimerical muse of Gerhard Richter and Philip Guston. Despite their fitting into the known lexicon of art, they are wholly unique and singular.
Ironically, these works represent a game in play, not an endgame. Unlike chess, the paintings are about optimization through imperfection and blending of the known with the unknowable. That which we might glimpse through art. The positions these works take are not objective, like in chess, but subjective and open to interpretation.
JAMES GORTNER
Good Knight, 2021
Reclaimed oil, acrylic, and spray paint on canvas, 72 in x 60 in
(Private Collection)
JAMES GORTNER
Shadowless Horse, 2021
Reclaimed oil, acrylic, and spray paint on canvas, 72 in x 60 in
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JAMES GORTNER
Knight & Day, 2024
Reclaimed oil, acrylic, and spray paint on canvas, 72 in x 60 in
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JAMES GORTNER
Dirtbag Of Gold, 2024
Reclaimed oil, acrylic, and spray paint on canvas, 72 in x 48 in
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JAMES GORTNER
Knights Inversal, 2021
Reclaimed oil, acrylic, and spray paint on canvas, 72 in x 60 in
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JAMES GORTNER
Promotion Of The Sun, 2025
Reclaimed oil, acrylic, and spray paint on canvas, 72 in x 60 in
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JAMES GORTNER
Ride-Or-Die Zebra Pegasus, 2025Reclaimed oil, acrylic, and spray paint on canvas, 72 in x 60 in
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JAMES GORTNER
Castled King, 2021
Reclaimed oil, acrylic, and spray paint on canvas, 72 in x 48 in
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JAMES GORTNER
Masked Joan Of Arc Riding A Unicorn Knight From Hell, 2024
Reclaimed oil, acrylic, and spray paint on canvas, 72 in x 60 in
(Private Collection)
JAMES GORTNER
Dragon Knight, 2025Reclaimed oil, acrylic, and spray paint on canvas, 72 in x 60 in
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For exhibition opportunities or to purchase works from this series, please contact the artist.