“James Wolfe is a master of construction in steel. His distinctive linear, drawing-like sculptures, with their delicate flourishes and emphatic bold strokes, are paradigms of what can be done with this once transgressive material.”

—Karen Wilkin

James Wolfe (b. 1944, NYC) has built a distinguished international career, with solo exhibitions at galleries in Germany and Canada, and in the US at the André Emmerich Gallery and the Meredith Long Gallery, NYC; Baumgartner Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Marion Meyer, Laguna Beach, CA; the Rubiner Gallery, Bloomfield, MI; Turtle Gallery, Deer Isle, ME, and the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting & Sculpture, NYC. His sculpture has also been shown in solo exhibitions at the James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, PA, and the Civic Center Plaza Palo Alto, CA. The James Wolfe Sculpture Trail in Johnstown, PA, features a permanent installation of ten large-scale, commissioned sculptures.

In 1966 at the age of 22, Wolfe became associated with the Bennington, Vermont circle of artists, including Antony Caro, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, Isaac Witkin, and Willard Boepple. Wolfe taught Witkin to weld and assisted him with his first group of metal sculpture exhibited in 1969. That same year, he became Kenneth Noland’s assistant, when Noland acquired some of his late friend David Smith’s equipment and material and began working in steel. Wolfe also worked closely with Caro at Noland’s studio in ’69 and ’70, and later in 1972 in Veduggio, Italy and in 1974 at York Steel Works in Toronto, Canada. In 1978, Caro tapped Wolfe to fabricate and assemble in situ his large Ledge Piece, commissioned by the National Gallery of Art. “Despite these close associations with Witkin, Noland, and Caro,” writes critic and scholar Karen Wilkin, “Wolfe’s own sculpture always remained entirely personal, distinguished by his mastery of gesture. Whether exultant, elegant, or playful, Wolfe’s ‘drawing in steel,’ with its suave polychromy, is as recognizable as a signature.”

James Wolfe’s work is included in many important public collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Fort Worth Art Museum; Storm King Art Center; Harvard University; Lowe Art Center, Syracuse University, and Creative Arts Guild, Dalton, GA. Noted corporate collections include American Express, American Airlines, Bethlehem Steel, Mobil Oil, NYNEX Corporation, and Steel Case Corporation.

He has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Saint-Gaudens Foundation; and has taught at the School of Visual Arts, NYC; the Boston Museum School; Emma Lake Workshop, Saskatoon, Canada; Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV; Virginia Polytechnic Institute; and Bennington College. He currently lives and works in Northport, ME.

The Bennington Legacy: Sculpture by Willard Boepple, Isaac Witkin, James Wolfe; essay by Karen Wilkin (Tower49 Gallery, NYC), 2015