You Can't Have My Shine, Baby I'm Doing Just Fine

FEBRUARY JAMES (B. 1977)  

You Can't Have My Shine, Baby I'm Doing Just Fine  

signed twice, titled, and dated 'YOU CAN'T HAVE MINE SHINE, BABY I'M DOING JUST FINE FEBRUARY JAMES 2021' (on the reverse)  

oil, oil pastel, acrylic, ink and watercolor on canvas  

22 x 22 inches (56 x 56 cm)  

Executed in 2021.

PROVENANCE:  

Private collection, New York

NOTES:  

Born in 1977 in Washington, D.C., February James is a contemporary artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans painting, sculpture, installation, and performance. Largely self-taught, James has developed a distinctive visual language rooted in explorations of Black identity, femininity, spirituality, and psychological interiority. Her works often center Black female subjects rendered through expressive figuration and layered symbolism, combining abstraction and portraiture to create emotionally charged narratives that resist fixed interpretation. Drawing from personal experience, diasporic histories, and mythic archetypes, James constructs images that celebrate vulnerability, self-possession, and transformation.

Executed in 2021, You Can’t Have My Shine, Baby I’m Doing Just Fine exemplifies the artist’s vibrant and deeply intuitive approach to portraiture. Composed in oil, oil pastel, acrylic, ink, and watercolor on canvas, the work radiates with emotional immediacy and chromatic intensity. James layers gestural marks, translucent washes, and richly saturated color to produce a figure that feels at once grounded and dreamlike. The painting’s title functions almost as a declaration of resilience and self-affirmation, imbuing the composition with an unmistakable sense of confidence and psychic protection.

James’ figures frequently occupy ambiguous psychological spaces, balancing tenderness with defiance. Here, the interplay of materials creates a shifting surface in which the subject seems to emerge through accumulations of memory, gesture, and sensation. Her use of line and color resists rigid structure in favor of emotional truth, allowing the painting to operate simultaneously as portrait, meditation, and assertion of presence. The intimacy of the square format further heightens the work’s immediacy, drawing the viewer into a direct encounter with the figure’s expressive force.

February James’ work has been exhibited widely throughout the United States and internationally, with presentations at institutions and galleries including the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), and Eric Firestone Gallery in New York. Her work has gained increasing recognition for its powerful engagement with Black subjectivity and contemporary figuration, and is held in numerous private collections. Through her richly layered practice, James continues to expand conversations surrounding representation, spirituality, and emotional agency within contemporary art.