James L. Cunningham (1948-1991)

Abridged resume

Cunningham Gallery, Inc.

 

Education:

Herron School of Art, Indiana University, Indianapolis

 

Teaching:

Artist in Service of the Metropolitan Arts Council of
Indianapolis, Indiana (1974-1978).

 

Public Collections:

National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D.C.

National Aeronatics and Space Administration (NASA), NASA headquarters, Washington D.C., Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Fla., Space Port Gallery

Purdue University, School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, West Layfayette, Indiana.

Indiana State Museum, 20th Century Collection, accessioned 1986, Indianapolis, Indiana.

Eli Lilly and Company Biomedical Research Center, five 4 x 10′ paintings, Indianapolis, Indiana.

GTE/Sylvania National Customer Support Center, three paintings 55 x 34″ x 2,

9’2″ x 55″.

 

Exhibitions:

1982, “The Artist and the Space Shuttle” NASA exhibition, two paintings.  Opened at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington D.C., traveled to Sites nationally.

1986, Mitsukoski Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, NASA group exhibition, “The Artist and the Space Shuttle”, sponsored by the Hiro International Corporation.

1987,  “Paintings of Rio Grande do Sul”, The Theatro Sao Pedro, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, solo exhibition, accompanying lecture and study.  Sponsossred by Indiana/Rio Grande do Sul Partners of the Americas.

1987, Paris Air Show, Paris France, four part painting commissioned  by Ontario/Pryromet Corporation for center piece display.

1987,  “Partners of the Americas Exhibition: Paintings of the Rio Grande do Sul” – official event of the Pan American Arts Festival, Cunningham Gallery, Indianapolis, Indiana.  Solo exhibition sponsored by Indiana/RS Partners of the Americas, 10th Pan American Games Arts Festival, Mansur Development Corporation, and Bank One Indiana.

1988, “Visions of Flight: A Retrospective from the NASA Art Collection” 70 paintings travelling to NASA SITES nationally and internationally.

1989, “Space” group exhibition of American and Soviet artists touring 5 cities in Japan (Jim contributed 3 paintings).

1989, “Visions of Flight: A Retrospective from the NASA Art Collection”, Indianapolis Art League – guest currator, speaker and contributing artist.

1989, “Homeless/a Photographic Essay” by artist Carl Pope.  This exhibition was sponsored and organized by Cunningham Gallery, Inc.(with major funding by trhe Penrod Society, St Vincent Hospital, and Phi Kappa Psi).  The funds generated from this event were donated to the Homeless Initiative Program administering free on-site health care to the homeless.

1989, “Return to Space”, exhibition of new space related paintings by James L. Cunningham at Cunningham Gallery.

1990, September, NASA Artists exhibition at the Space Telescope Science Institute commissioned by NASA from the STS-31 launch.

 

Competitions:

1982, Winner of National Sports Festival commemorative poster (juried by Robert Indiana).

1982, Winner of competition for a major piece of art ( 16 x 16′) to be installed in the lobby of the newly constructed TV studios of WTHR (NBC), Indianapolis, Indiana.

1983, Best of Show, 59th Annual Hoosier Salon.

 

Public Commissions:

 

1985, Indianapolis Ballet Theatre 30 x 60′ set design for the ballet “Indiana” by Vitorio Retti, artist director Greoge Verdak, choreographer Dossi Dindonis.

1986, Amateur Athletic Union: “A Field of Stars” poster for the 56th Annual James E. Sullivan Memorial Award.

1987, United States Diving: Commission of sculpture for the Chairman of the Board of Phillips Petroleum Corporation.

1987, NASA: Commission of “Chaos and Order”, a painting of the Uranus moon Miranda for the NASA Arts Program’s collection of art based on unmanned space exploration.

1987, Radnor: Commission of large scale sculpture of painted polycarbonate plastic and aluminum for the four story atrium of their 101 West Ohio Street Building, Indianapolis, Indiana.

1990, “Imaging to the Edge of Space and Time” painting commissioned by NASA, Washington D.C.

 

Honors:

NASA Arts Program:  Invited by NASA to document it’s Space Program as a “NASA Artist”.  Jim has created paintings for the NASA Art Collection of the following events:

     1976, Apollo-Soyuz launch, Kennedy Space Center

     1976, Helios “B” launch, Kennedy Space Center

     1976, Viking II landing, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

     1977, Viking “A” and “B” launches, Kennedy Space Center

     1981, First Space Shuttle Columbia launch, Kennedy Space Center

     1984, Space Shuttle Challenger launch, Kennedy Space Center

     1987, Painting for Unmanned Space Exploration Collection

     1990, STS-1/launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, Kennedy Space Center

     1990, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD: Observation of 1st operational images received from        Hubble Space Telescope.

    1990, NASA-AMES Virtual Environment Lab, Palo Alto, CA

1982, Honorary Chairman: “Art for Art’s Sake”, Indianapolis Art League Foundation, Indianapolis Indiana.

1987, Invitation and travel grant as artist for Indiana/Rio Grande do Sul Partners of the Americas

1987, Grant from the Pan American Arts Festival, sponsored by the Indianapolis Foundation and Target Stores.

1990, Volunteer of the Year from the Indianapolis Art League.

1991, Indianapolis Museum of Art, exhibition by James L and Kate Cunningham.

1992, North Central High School, Indianapolis,  Alumni Hall Of Fame Induction