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.

Jim Isermann created numerous commissioned installations for public spaces such as UCLA Hammer Museum (2006), Yale University Art Museum (2007), Princeton University (2008). His most recent exhibitions include Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Corvi Mora, London, Deitch Projects, New York, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Hammer Museum, Portikus, Frankfurt and the Magasin, Centre National d'Art Contemporain, Grenoble. His work was also included in several group exhibitions including MOMA, New York, MOCA, Los Angeles, and Musee d'art et d'histoire, Geneva. Isermann has received several prestigious awards, among them, The Guggenheim Fellowship (2001), two National Endowment for the Arts—Visual Arts Fellowships (1987 and 1984) and the California Community Foundation's J. Paul Getty Fellowship for the Visual Arts (1999). 

Courtesy of Praz-Delavallade