Jim Falconer

Jim Falconer’s bright, surrealist works land between abstraction and figuration, Western and non-Western inspirations. Part of the Hairy Who, the artist-led exhibition group (1966-1969), and, more broadly, of the Chicago Imagists movement, Falconer studied the psychological expression of the human figure amidst the American political landscape in the 1960s. Active in the anti-war efforts, Falconer was part of the Chicago branch of Artists Against the War in Vietnam, alongside artists and friends such as Dominick Di Meo and Robert Donley. Exhibiting together with artists Jim Nutt, Art Green, Gladys Nilsson, Suellen Rocca, and Karl Wirsum as part of the Hairy Who, Falconer describes his work of that time as “punk rock.” The artist’s bold rebellions of colour and composition in the time of political and civil unrest stand in contrast to the rest of Hairy Who’s attentive craftsmanship. Written by Goldsmiths CCA