James Brinsfield was born in Chicago and lived in Massachusetts and Germany as the son of a career military officer. While in high school in Massachusetts he was awarded a scholarship to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston where he attended weekend drawing classes. Thereafter he moved to Chicago and earned a BFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago and an MFA in painting and studied with noted abstract film maker Stan Brakhage. 

Brinsfield has 17 one-person shows in his exhibition history including exhibitions in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Kansas City. He is the first painter awarded a Charlotte Street Fund Award. He has been reviewed in Art in America  three times as well as reviews published of his work appearing in Art News, Flash Art,  Contemporanea, The Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post and the Kansas City Star. His paintings are in numerous public and private collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. He is a Lecturer in the painting department of the Kansas City Art Institute.

Brinsfield is scheduled to have a one-person exhibition at Haw Contemporary in the spring of 2014.

2014 Self-Titled, Haw Contemporary, Kansas City, MO

2011 James Brinsfield 2007-2011, The Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art, St. Joseph, Missouri

2010 Dolphin Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri

2007 Jan Weiner Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri

2005 Jan Weiner Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri

2003 Acuna-Hansen Gallery, Los Angeles, California

2000 Joseph Nease Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri

1998 Joseph Nease Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri

1994 David Levik Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri

1992 Morgan Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri

1990 Anton Gallery, Washington, D.C.

1988 Anton Gallery, Washington, D.C.

1986 Anton Gallery, Washington, D.C.

1985 Asperger-Bischof Gallery, Chicago, Illinois

1983 Feature Gallery, Chicago, Illinois

1982 Nancy Lurie Gallery, Chicago, Illinois

1981 Nancy Lurie Gallery, Chicago, Illinois

2013 OPEN, Haw Contemporary, Kansas City, Missouri

2013 Thanks For the Warning, the Dolphin Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri

2012 The Oppenheimer Collection @20, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, Kansas

2012 Abstraction Kansas City, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, Kansas

2012 Liberty, the Dolphin Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri.

2011 America Now + Here, Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, Kansas City, Missouri

2011 What’s Up, the Dolphin Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri

2010 New Digs, the Dolphin Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri

2009 Interchange, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri.

2009 The Francis and Julia Spiezer Collection, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, Illinois.

2009 Resonate, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, Kansas.

2008 About Abstraction, Salina Center for the Arts, Salina, Kansas. Curated by Heather Ferrell

2008 Conversation Pieces, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Mo., Curated by Chris Cook.

2008 5x7, Austin Arthouse, Austin, Texas

2008 Inman Gallery, Houston Texas. Curated by Elizabeth Dunbar.

2007 Allusive Abstraction, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, Kansas. Curated by Bruce Hartman

2005 New Acquisitions, Gallery of Art, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, Kansas

1999 Perspective Kansas City, Gallery of Art, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, Kansas. Curated by Raphael Rubinstein.

1997 Perspective Kansas City, Gallery of Art, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, Kansas. Curated by Dan Cameron.

1995 50 Years of Chicago Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois.

1982 New Figuration in America, Milwaukee Art Museum, curator, Russel Bowman

1978 Chicago and Vicinity Show, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. Curated by Roberta Smith and James Speyer.