JERRY WAYNE DOWNS

 Jerry Wayne Downs was born in Mount Olive, Alabama in 1934, the last of six children. After graduating from high school, Downs served in the Navy in the Pacific. After leaving the Navy, Downs joined the animation department of Walt Disney Studios in 1956, working under two of the famed "Five Old Men" who founded Disney Animation.

Downs went through the Animation and Training Apprentice Program at Disney Animation. Despite having no prior art training, Downs was promoted within six months to do animation work that would normally not be entrusted to apprentices until six years of training in the program.

Downs worked as an animator at Disney Animation for ten years, working on productions such as "Sleeping Beauty", "Mary Poppins", "The Sword in the Stone", and "The Jungle Book".

Downs then left Disney Animation to pursue a career in fine art in 1967. He also served as the artist in residence for "Far West" magazine until 1972. Thereafter, Downs devoted himself entirely to his career as a fine art painter in the Surrealist tradition.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

1983    Bowers Museum, Santa Ana, CA
1985    Buena Park Fine Art Center, Buena Park, CA
1986    Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, CA
1987    Annenberg School of Communications, USC, LA, CA
1991    Museum of History and Industry, Seattle, WA
1995    Dianne Nelson Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
2000    Dianne Nelson Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA

GROUP SHOWS

1996    Dianne Nelson Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
1997    Dianne Nelson Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
1998    Dianne Nelson Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
1999    Dianne Nelson Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
2001    Dianne Nelson Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
2002    Dianne Nelson Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
2003    Dianne Nelson Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
2005    "The Year of the Chimera 1.0", Glass Garage Fine Art Gallery,
             West Hollywood, CA
2006    "The Year of the Chimera 2.0", Glass Garage Fine Art Gallery,
             West Hollywood, CA
2007    "The Year of the Chimera 3.0", Glass Garage Fine Art Gallery,
             West Hollywood, CA
           "The Year of the Chimera 3.1", Glass Garage Fine Art Gallery,
             West Hollywood, CA
           "The Year of the Chimera 3.2", Glass Garage Fine Art Gallery,
             West Hollywood, CA
2008    "The Lucent Dossier Project", Glass Garage Fine Art Gallery,
             West Hollywood, CA
           "The Year of the Chimera 4.0", Glass Garage Fine Art
             Gallery, West Hollywood, CA
2009    "The Machine in the Garden (the Steampunk Project)",
             Glass Garage Fine Art Gallery, West Hollywood, CA
           "The Year of the Chimera 5.0", Glass Garage Fine Art Gallery,
             West Hollywood, CA
2010    "The Year of the Chimera 6.0", Glass Garage Fine Art Gallery,
             West Hollywood, CA
           "The Year of the Chimera 6.1", Glass Garage Fine Art Gallery,
             West Hollywood, CA
           "Psychoradiology: Applied Jungian Concepts",
             Glass Garage Fine Art Gallery, West Hollywood, CA
2011    "The Year of the Chimera 6.2", Glass Garage Fine Art Gallery,
             West Hollywood, CA

PUBLICATIONS

Chang, Richard, "The Machine in the Garden", ARTnews, September 2009
Stiefl, Hevly, Carasso, "Jerry Downs - Reflections", Museum of History and Industry, G.L.G. Group, 1991
Carasso, et al., "Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture - Jerry Wayne Downs", Camex, 1989

SIGNIFICANT COLLECTIONS

Bowers Museum, Santa Ana, CA
Museum of History and Industry, Seattle, WA
Meyer Properties, Newport Beach, CA

"Tell me where is Fancy bred?
Or in the heart or in the head?
How begot, how nourished?
Reply, reply."
- William Shakespeare,
"The Merchant of Venice"