Born in 1955, Kenosha, WI, US
Lives and works in Palm Springs, CA, US
M.F.A., California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA, US
B.F.A., University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, US

Though many contemporary artists are mining the reservoirs of American design history for direction in their fine art practice, Jim Isermann has long been at the forefront of these concerns. Through wall hangings, hand-woven rugs, fabric-covered sculptural cubes and vinyl-patterned murals he embraces the possibility of utopia in all its aesthetic and functional forms. Isermann’s art practice has fixated on the exchange of visual information between abstraction and design, mixing elements of “high” and “low” styles, celebrating the decorative potential of geometric abstraction and reveals the symbiotic relationship between fine and applied art.

Isermann adapts the formal language of minimalism and abstraction to the utilitarian prescriptions of contemporary design: his eye-popping paintings and patterned sculptures flirt with functionality, embodying abstract modernism’s quick evolution into the principles of design.