James Strombotne was born in Watertown, South Dakota and received his formal education in California; his Bachelor of Arts from Pomona and his Master of Fine Arts from the Claremont Graduate School.His first one-man show was in 1956 in San Francisco. Since then he's had over sixty one-man shows, four in New York City, twenty-two in Los Angeles, and others in San Francisco, Washington D.C., Santa Barbara, Santa Fe, Newport Beach (CA), etc. Included in this number are ten retrospectives. His work is included in over twenty-five major museum collections such as the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. A feature article about his work appeared in Time magazine in 1962 and in that same year James received a Guggenheim Fellowship.James Strombotne's work has received wide acclaim and is included in many well-known private collections most notably the Jack Nicholson collection which includes twenty pieces. He's also been included in most major group shows in America, including two Whitney Annuals, the Carnegie International and the Corcoran Biennial.Since his first show in 1956 James has received many awards among them being the Art in America "New Talent Award" and an appointment to the Institute of Creative Arts at the University of California in 1965-66.