James Gayles is an Emmy Award-winning graphic designer and artist who specializes in watercolor portraits.
James attended Pratt Institute in New York, where he studied under renowned painters Jacob Lawrence and super realist Audrey Flack. James has won public art commissions from cities across the US and Asia. He is committed to cultivating artists and sharing his work.
As a commercial artist early in his career, he established himself in New York as a Graphic Designer and illustrator, becoming Assistant Director of Graphics at NewsCenter 4, NBC-TV.
At NBC, he won a television Emmy Award for design and illustration. James is also a two-time winner of Art Direction Magazine’s Creativity Award, one for the NewsCenter 4 logo redesign, and the other for an editorial illustration for the New York Times. James has illustrated for McGraw-Hill, Random House, Essence Magazine, Black Enterprise Magazine, as well as several advertising agencies on both the East and West coasts.
James Gayles CV
Education
BA in Painting, Pratt Institute, Attended four years toward BA degree. Advisors: Jacob Lawrence and Audrey Buckley
Biography
I am a passionate fine artist (painting & mixed media), illustrator, graphic designer, musician, teacher, and father. I am committed to cultivating artists, liberating experiences of the African and Black Diaspora through art and sharing my work with the world. My vision is to put beautiful, uplifting, and enlightening work out in the world and to inspire young and upcoming artists. I see art as a vehicle to educate, by portraying ancestral icons who youth and all people can be proud of and admire. I take things that are obscure and bring them to the open. Music, history, culture, - together these elements are magical and form the world in which we live. I’m interested in what lies beneath, the hidden story, the truth – this is why I concentrate on the eyes, they are indeed the windows to the soul. After deep examination of my and current work, I’ve concluded that there is a central theme that has ran and is still running throughout my life and my artwork. This theme is the search for cultural identity. Growing up as a child in the 1950’s which by the way was when I started painting in elementary school, my cultural identity was either taken from me or worst grossly distorted. This led to the development of an inferiority complex during that period of my life. Subsequently I am subconsciously drawn to the cultures of African cultures and people of the African Diaspora. This drive is manifested in my artwork.
Grants, Awards, & Honors
2019 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award, Alameda County Art Commission, Oakland, CA
2016 Voter’s Choice for Best Artist, East Bay Express Oakland, CA
2013 Selected for the Public Art display at Fukuoka Park Fukuoka, Japan
2012 Selected to represent Oakland and Oakland Art in the Fukuoka-Oakland
artist cultural exchange Fukuoka, Japan
2011 1st Place Illustration Award, East Bay Press Club
2010 City of Oakland, Crafts and Cultural Arts, Individual Artist Grant
2009 1st Place Illustration Award, California Newspaper Publishers’ Association
2008 City of Richmond Civic Center Public Art Project, Painting selected for
public art
2007 City of Oakland, Crafts and Cultural Arts, Individual Artist Grant
2004 City of Oakland, Crafts and Cultural Arts, Individual artist Grant
2003 Jan Hart-Shyers Award 2003, The Art of Living Black
2003 1st Place Illustration Award, California Newspaper Publishers’ Award
1980 Television Emmy Award, For design and illustration, NBC-TV
1979 N.Y. Art Directors Creativity Award for an Editorial Illustration for the
New York Times
Solo and Two Person Exhibitions
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2021, Reno Art Works Gallery, Reno, NV
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2019, Oakstop Gallery, Oakland, CA
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2018, Six Square Gallery, Austin, TX
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2016, Spice Monkey Restaurant, Oakland, CA
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2015-16, Kroma Art Space, Art Basel Miami, Coconut Grove, FL
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2014, Oakstop Gallery, Oakland, CA
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2014, CK Gallery, Oakland, CA
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2012, Oakland Asian Cultural Center, Oakland, CA
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2012, Evolve The Gallery, Sacramento, CA
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2012, Fukuoka Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
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2012, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA
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2011, JanRae Community Gallery, Oakland, CA
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2011, Linen Life Gallery, San Leandro, CA
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2011, Guerilla Gallery, Berkeley, CA
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2010, Piedmont Piano Company, Oakland, CA
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2010, Asian Resource Center Gallery, Oakland, CA
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2010, Harrington Gallery Firehouse Art Center, Pleasanton, CA
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2009, Cock-A-Doodle Café, Oakland, CA
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2009, Lindsay Dirkx Brown Gallery, San Ramon, CA
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2008, Swarm Gallery, Oakland, CA
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2008, San Ramon Library, San Ramon, CA
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2008, NoneSuch Space Gallery, Oakland, CA
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2008, Market Street Gallery, Oakland, CA
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2007, Joyce Gordon Gallery, Oakland, CA
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2007, African American Art & Culture Complex, San Francisco, CA
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2006, JFK University, Pleasant Hill, CA
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2006, Cock-A-Doodle Café, Oakland, CA
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2006, City of Oakland Cultural Arts Gallery, Oakland, CA
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2005, Gallery at Thoreau, The Presidio, San Francisco, CA
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2004, Joysmith Gallery, Memphis, TN
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2003, Oakland, CA
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2002, Richmond, CA
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2001, Benicia, CA
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2000, Oakland, CA
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1996, Oakland, CA
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1989, Oakland, CA
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1979, New Paltz, NY
Group Exhibitions
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2020-21, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA
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2015, Sun Gallery, Hayward, CA
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2013, Studio One Art Center, Oakland, CA
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2011, Craft and Cultural Arts Gallery, Guest Curators, Eric Murphy and Gabriel Navar, Oakland, CA
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2011, Studio One Art Center, Organized by OneLife Institute, Oakland, CA
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2011, African American Art & Culture Complex, San Francisco, CA
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2011, Evolve the Gallery, Sacramento, CA
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2010, Fela Kuti, San Francisco, CA
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2010, Harrington Galleries, San Francisco, CA
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2010, Adobe Art Gallery, Castro Valley, CA
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2009, JanRae Community Art Gallery, Women’s Cancer Resource Center, Oakland, CA
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2008, Modern Art Gallery, San Francisco, CA
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2008, The JanRae Community Art Gallery of the Women’s Cancer Resource Center, Berkeley, CA
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2008, City of Oakland Cultural Arts Gallery, Oakland, CA
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2007, Swarm Gallery, Oakland, CA
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2007, Space 237 Art Gallery, Toledo, OH
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2007, Electix Gallery, El Cerrito, CA
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2007, Pro Arts Gallery, Oakland, CA
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2007, Cock-A-Doodle Café, Oakland, CA
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2007, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA
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2007, African American Museum & Library of Oakland, Oakland, CA
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2007, Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA
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2006, Expressions Gallery, Berkeley, CA.
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2005, The Puck Building, Soho, New York, NY
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2005, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA
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2005, San Francisco, CA
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2004, FM Studios, Emeryville, CA
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2004, June Steingart Gallery, Laney College, Oakland, CA
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2004, San Pablo Arts Gallery, San Pablo, CA
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2004, Women’s Cancer Resource Center Gallery, Berkeley, CA
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2004, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA
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2004, African American Historical & Cultural Museum, San Francisco, CA
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2003, Pro Arts Gallery, Oakland, CA
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2003, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA
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2003, African American Historical & Cultural Museum, San Francisco, CA
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2003, Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA
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2002, Pro Arts Gallery, Oakland, CA
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2002, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA
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2001, Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA
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2000, Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, CA
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1995, African American Historical & Cultural Museum, Juried by Samela Lewis, San Francisco, CA
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1990, Lilian Paley Center for the Visual Arts, Oakland, CA
Commissioned Work
2011 Alameda County Art Commission– Commissioned to do 4
paintings as public art for the New Ashland Youth Center
2006 Alameda County Art Commission – Commissioned to do 4
paintings as public art for the newly built Juvenal Justice Center
1998 Public Art Commission, City of Oakland, Crafts and Cultural Arts
Department Outdoor mural for the newly built Bushrod
Recreation Center, Oakland, CA.
Published Works
2019 Reflections 2: The Creative Process, Pochino Press
2014 Reflections, Pochino Press
Collaborative Projects
2021 Portraits Plus More: A Collabortive Process, Reno Art Works Reno, NV
2020 St. Andrews Plaza Superheroes Mural Project, attitudinal Healing Connection,
Bay Area Mural Program Oakland, CA
2018 A Love Letter to Oakland, 2018 Oakland Mural Festival Oakland, CA
2003 Kaleidoscope, Bay Area Muralists, Craft & Cultural Arts Gallery Oakland, CA
2003 Everything Under the Sun, Marin Watercolor Society Show, Tiburon Town Hall Tiburon, CA
1993 Art in Public Places Project, Mayor’s Office Oakland, CA
Print Media
2019, August Meet Carol White, Art Magazine, Volume 25, pp. 3-4
2016-17 The Best of James Gayles, Print Series, Alameda County Arts Commission
2015, June An Artist, Her Pants, and the World, Art and Culture, pp. 9-11
2012-13 Public Art Exhibit Catalog, Alameda County Arts Commission Catalog
2011-12 Public Art Exhibit Catalog, Richmond Memorial Civic Center Revitalization
Project
2011 The Art of James Gayles, ImagineAffairs, Berkeley, CA
2010 Life Expressions of Living, Synchronized Chaos, The December Issue of
Synchronized Chaos: Internalization
2007 Black Arts Quarterly, featured artist, Winter Issue, Stanford University
2006 Artist Profile and Interview, Soul Magazine, Fall Issue # 15
2006, April Exhibition Review, The Daily Review, Haward
2006, April Exhibition Review, Oakland Tribune
2005 Artist Profile and Interview, Tea Party Magazine, Fall Issue # 15
BluesMasters Catalog, Exhibit Catalog
Black Artists in Oakland, Book, Arcadia Press
Exhibit Catalog, Alameda County Arts Commission Catalog
Web Features
James Gayles and His Book Reflections
Oakland North
Berkeley, CA
Crossing Bridges
CBS MarketWatch.com, 2004
San Francisco, CA
Crossing Bridges
CBS MarketWatch.com, 2003
San Francisco, CA
Teaching & Instruction
2021 Art Instructor, Reno Art Works Reno, NV
2020 Art Instructor, Sierra Arts Academy, Sierra Arts Foundation Reno, NV
Fine Arts Instructor, The JanRae Community Art Gallery Berkeley, CA
Art Instructor, Pentecostal Way of Truth Academy Oakland, CA
Artist-In-Residence
2021-current Reno Art Works Reno, NV
2020 Oakland Artists Gallery Oakland, CA
Oakstop Oakland, CA
Pro Arts Gallery and Commons Oakland, CA
57th Street Gallery Oakland, CA
Swarm Gallery + Studios Oakland, CA
Richmond Arts Center Richmond, CA
Professional Affiliations
Appointments
Board of Directors Member, ArtsChange Richmond, CA
The Art of Living Black Juror, 2007
African American Museum & Library of Oakland Coalition Member Oakland, CA
Public Art and Artist Grant Panels, City of Oakland Cultural Arts Oakland, CA
Marin Watercolor Society Member Tiburon, CA
Pleasanton Art League Member Pleasanton, CA
Communication Committee Chair, Oakland Marketing Board Oakland, CA
California Lawyers for the Arts Member San Francisco, CA
African American Business Exchange Member
MediaNews Group Visiting Artist
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2008-current, Visual Artist, Local 365 Art and Music Collaborative
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2000-current, Fine Artist (Painter) & Graphic Artist, East Bay Newspaper Group
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1998-2010, Illustrator, ANG Newspapers, Oakland, CA
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1980-1996, Graphic Designer and Fine Artist, Oakland, CA
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1972-1980, Assistant News Graphics Director, NewsCenter 4, NBC-TV, New York, NY
Selected Illustrations & Collections
Illustrations
McGraw-Hill
Random House
Essence Magazine
Black Enterprise Magazine
Collections
Alameda Arts Commission
Bay Area Blues Society
Carlos Santana
City of Oakland Cultural Arts
Hill & Co., Communications
Judge Trina Thompson
Richmond Health Center
Siebert, Branford, Shanks & Co.
Yoshi’s