Biography

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In the 1970s, James Byrne developed a distinctive, body-centered approach to image making, using a handheld camera as an extension of himself to engage dynamically with subjects. His early performance-based videos and multi-screen installations explored the formal and conceptual limits of video, focusing on the interplay between artist and viewer, perception, and the artist's identity.

 

By the 1980s, his focus broadened to include landscapes and collaborative choreographic works. Byrne's expressive camera techniques seamlessly integrated the sensuality of natural landscapes with performance art and in a video format. He examined this aesthetic through innovative video dance crafted for the medium, highlighting intense physicality, performance, and the human figure.

 

Originally from Chisago City, Minnesota, Byrne graduated from the University of Minnesota with a B.E.S.(1976) with concentrations in studio art and philosophy. He earned his M.F.A. in Video Art from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1979) and pursued further graduate studies at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in New York.  He lived in New York, 1984-1994, and currently resides in St. Paul.

 

Byrne has earned fellowships and grants from various arts organizations, including the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Minnesota State Arts Board, Bush Foundation, Jerome Foundation, and McKnight Foundation.

 

When living in New York he served as an associate professor of media arts at New Jersey State College Jersey City. After moving to St. Paul, he taught filmmaking and screenwriting at Metropolitan State University until his retirement in 2019.