ABOUT

A native New Yorker born into a family art business, James Trotta-Bono is an entrepreneur serving as a gallerist, curator, art advisor, and philanthropist. In 2014, he founded Trotta-Bono Contemporary to unite his lifelong engagement with Native American art and culture with his evolving passion for Contemporary work. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Fordham University and has completed specialized postgraduate studies in the arts. James serves as the youngest board member of the Ethnic Arts Council (EAC), was a founding member of the Hammer Museum’s Hammer Collective, and sits on the advisory council for the Walker Youngbird Foundation.

Trotta-Bono Contemporary specializes in 20th- and 21st-century Native American Art, with a focus on artists whose work challenges social perceptions and expands the American Art Narrative. As a philanthropist, James supports organizations and initiatives that share these values.

James co-wrote, edited, and published To Satisfy the Desires of the Soul, a major work highlighting the artistic culture of the Eastern Woodlands Tribes. As co-advisor and co-curator for The William P. Healey Collection of Native American Art, James placed one hundred artworks from the Healey Collection with the Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM). This partnership led to a landmark SLAM exhibition in 2024 and a widely distributed fine art publication in 2025, titled “Native Studio Art Since the 1920s: The Healey Collection” (St. Louis Art Museum, Hirmer Publishers, 2025). James also represents the Baum Collection—a seminal grouping of works by Betye Saar, Alison Saar, and Lezley Saar.

James has curated and co-curated exhibitions in Paris, New York City, Palm Beach, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Santa Fe, including the critically acclaimed On the Frontier: The Art of José Bedia and Looking Forward Through the Past: Contemporary Native American Art at El Museo. In 2024, he co-curated New Terrains at Phillips in New York—a 20,000-square-foot survey exhibition praised for its pivotal role in advancing Contemporary Native American Art.

Under his leadership, Trotta-Bono Contemporary has set record prices in multiple private sale categories and facilitated major placements of both individual artworks and entire collections. James notably placed the Estate of George Terasaki with Schweizer Premodern and Sotheby’s in 2019 and has negotiated significant works by artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Agnes Martin, Andrew Wyeth, Damien Hirst, Julian Schnabel, Betye Saar, George Morrison, Fritz Scholder, and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, among others.

Trotta-Bono Contemporary has placed artworks in major public and private institutions including Art Bridges, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Art OMI, Georgia Museum of Art, The Hammer Museum, The Hood Museum of Art, The Horseman Foundation, LACMA, Musée de l’Homme, Saint Louis Art Museum, the TIA Collection, the International Center of Photography, and the Wichita Art Museum.

Based in Venice, California, Trotta-Bono Contemporary operates as a private gallery featuring intimate exhibitions and rotating works. To schedule an appointment, please contact info@tbcontemporary.com