Jamey Grimes

Artist Biography

Tuscaloosa, Ala., sculptor and installation artist Jamey Grimes (b. 1976, Montgomery, Ala.) has since 2006 shown his work in more than 100 exhibitions in almost 20 states. His two dozen solo exhibitions include recent ones at Southeastern Louisiana State University in Hammond; Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn.; Covenant Fine Arts Center in Grand Rapids, Mich.; North Floor Gallery in Huntsville, Ala; and Alabama’s Jacksonville State University.

Other venues where Grimes has shown include the Montgomery (Ala.) Museum of Fine Arts; the Meridian (Miss.) Museum of Art; Kendall Galleries and the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids; FAT Village in Ft. Lauderdale and Sculpture Key West, both in Florida; Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts in Wilmington; and Whitespace Gallery in Atlanta, Ga. Two of his sculptures are permanently installed at Pinnacle Bank in Nashville, Tenn.; others are at the Pinellas County Health Department in Largo, Fla., and Fairmont Chicago in the city’s Millennium Park.

Grimes is an Alabama State Council on the Visual Arts Fellowship Recipient and was the Arts Council of Tuscaloosa’s 2014 Visual Arts Educator of the Year. He teaches art at the University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, where in 2007 he received an MFA in sculpture. Grimes received a BFA in painting and BS in biology, with a minor in mathematics, from Alabama’s Birmingham-Southern College.

Artist Statement

The objects and environments that I create are fueled by encounters with natural forces, both real and imagined. Inspired by these encounters, I generate unique forms through the manipulation of synthetic materials. These forms accumulate, en masse, to engulf the viewer in an experience that is simultaneously unsettling and serene. My intent is to remind us of our relationships to forces of nature.

Synthetic materials establish a unique starting point for creating artwork that responds to nature. These tangible substances are selected because they have been cleansed of nature’s direct influence and reset by human manufacturing processes. Through abstraction and re-interpretation, patterns emerge from the medium and quickly emulate more complex natural designs. The juxtaposition of this dialogue reflects a human impulse to codify the natural world.