One of Dayton’s most acclaimed living artists, James Pate was born in Birmingham, AL and raised in Cincinnati, OH by his grandmother where he attended the School for Creative and Performing Arts and later earned a Corbett Mayerson Award scholarship to attend the Art Academy of Cincinnati. He is the 2015 Individual Artist recipient of the Ohio Arts Council Governor’s Award for the Arts, which is awarded annually to a single Ohio artist whose work has made a significant impact on their discipline locally, statewide, regionally, or nationally. Widely known for his idiosyncratic Techno-Cubism style, which fuses realism with spatial abstraction, Pate’s work depicts aspects of the lived Black experience speaking to contradictions of the human condition, and the beauty found in human potential that too often collides with the harsh realities of urban life. Through his art, Pate addresses difficult societal issues, especially the damaging effects of racism on communities, demonstrating different paths people may take. Often potent and provocative, Pate’s artwork seeks to create constructive dialogue about difficult subjects.
