Jim Mechanic was born in Los Angeles, and spent two years between ten and twelve living in central Mexico in the late sixties. The contrast between Los Angeles with it’s set designed ruins and the ruins of the Pre Columbian Americas has stuck with him all his life. In the 80’s he studied at UCSB before attaining a Masters Degree at UC San Diego where he studied with Eleanor and David Antin and taught art history for the noted performance artist Allan Kaprow. Mr. Mechanic showed and worked in Los Angeles In the Nineties and exhibited in Berlin , Germany and Breslov Poland at the beginning of the 2000’s . He was a mentor and working artist in the SBCC bronze casting program under Ed Inks from 2000 to 2016. Where all works were cast from wax to pouring , always with an eye to process and the distillation of meaning through the hands on process of making the work. The sculpture of Mr. Mechanic looks at the mass produced object in light of ecology, geologic time frames and a humor inspired by Dada and Surrealist Artists, including Juan Miro., Marcel Duchamp and contemporary artists, such as Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, and Ingrid Calame. The work proposes a provisional common ground based on biology and the half lives of technology and natural resources.
