James Joseph DeMartis was born in Corona, Queens, New York on March 30, 1926. He was one of seven children born to working-class Italian immigrants.
He served with distinction in World War II, receiving the Purple Heart for injuries incurred in Belgium leading up to the Battle of the Bulge. Discharged in 1945, he attended classes at the War Veteran Art Center at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City from 1946-47 as well as the Art Students League of New York. After traveling throughout the United States, he enrolled at the California School of Fine Arts in Santa Monica, California until 1949.
He signed on for a tour in the Merchant Marines shipping out of San Pedro, California, sailing over the Pacific.Then, DeMartis decided to devote himself full-time to painting and left for Europe in 1950. He traveled the continent settling in Florence, Italy where he attended L’Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze from 1950-54. He studied painting and painting restoration with help from the GI Bill. He participated in several group and one-man shows in Italy and Switzerland.
DeMartis returned to New York in 1956, at the height of the American Abstract Expressionist movement that began in New York City. He settled with his new family in Brooklyn, New York. He had a series of small grass-roots store-front galleries opened with fellow artists. He then opened the Armory Gallery and studio in Manhattan where he worked and exhibited his paintings. He also exhibited in other Manhattan galleries and at the National Arts Club.
In 1961, he was awarded the prestigious Emily Lowe Award for Painting. This led to to shows at the Ward Egglestone, ROKO, Pierantonio and Artemis West galleries from 1962-68. He then returned to Europe to participate in a group show in Florence, Italy. He opened the Brownstone Gallery in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn, exhibiting his and others’ works, while painting, framing and doing art restoration until 1988.
DeMartis moved from Brooklyn, New York and lived and worked for a time in Stonington, Maine, North Adams. Massachusetts, Bisbee, Arizona and Copake, New York. He continued doing one-man shows in Tokyo, Japan, Brooklyn, New York City, Sarasota, Florida, San Francisco, California, Santa Fe, New Mexico and elsewhere. His paintings are in collections worldwide.
His final one-man show was at the Olin Fine Arts Center at Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania.
Returning from that art exhibition, DeMartis became very ill and passed away in Hartford, Connecticut on December 17, 1996