About
James Tapscott, artist and designer.
As a contemporary land artist I work primarily outdoors, in the public realm, though often quite remote. My works are site specific, even site-determined and fuse simple materials and aesthetics with localized natural phenomena and light. Often I will create an installation and adapt it to a number of sites, creating subtly (sometimes profoundly) different experiences. I work in a reductive way – eliminating unnecessary visual material and aesthetic baggage to communicate a sense of the sublime as directly as possible. The experiences of my work are felt as much as they are observed and remind us how our modes of perception are merely a choice.
I use a wide variety of materials and methods to create my works, as the creative process changes between projects. The site determines the idea, the idea then determines the materials and methodology. For the past few years my materials have become ever more soft, none mores-o than light, which I pair with water and wind to explore their relationship and how the experience of these things can be more than just visual. I try to create bodily experiences, stimulating all senses. As this approach tends to produce more ephemeral works that are best temporary, I bridge this approach with a strong architectural sensibility and years of experience working with more robust building materials to create permanent public works. This synergy of natural aesthetics and a heightened sensitivity of space is my niche.
As a designer my intentions are to use the same affinity for natural materials to create objects of pure beauty and flexible functionality. The forms are purposefully simplistic, championing the materials inherent beauty and allowing the pieces to compliment the aesthetic of almost any architectural space.
I also delight in the opportunity to work with recycled Australian hardwoods, celebrating the unique qualities and aesthetic they produce and believe there is no such thing as imperfections in the material, as it is in the heart of its very nature to be imperfect. That is its beauty.
CV
Born 1980 in Perth, Western Australia.
Currently lives and works in Melbourne, Australia
EDUCATION
BA (art) Curtin University (Western Australia) 1997-99
Cert IV, Small Business Management - Kangan Batman TAFE 2006
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2006 New Flavors, The Town Hall Gallery, Hawthorn
2007 So Fresh, Paddington Contemporary Art, Sydney
2008 Art '08, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
2010 James Gray Gallery, Los Angeles
2010 Galleria Mentana, Florence, Italy
2011 Volution, 1000 Pound Bend, Melbourne
2011 Photography, Bashimi Art House, Salzburg, Austria
2012 Anita Traverso Gallery Salon Launch
2012 10-12 Kaleidoscope Gallery, Sydney
2013 Artecycle, Incinerator Arts Complex, Melbourne
2013 Globelight, Melbourne
2013 Biela Noc (White Night) Kosice, Slovakia
2014 Globelight, Melbourne
2014 Without a Shadow of a Dao, Anita Traverso Gallery
2015 Salon Season 2, Anita Traverso Gallery
2016 Globelight, Melbourne
2017 Japan Alps Art Festival
2018 BAY ART Shenzhen
2019 Continuous Refle(a)ction, Riverside Art Museum, Beijing, China
2019 Sensory Canvas, Ming Contemporary Art Museum, Shanghai, China
2019 Sea Art, Busan, Korea
2019 Beipu Art Festival, Beipu, Taiwan
2020 Changwon Sculpture Biennale
2020 Light + Life, Melbourne Design Week, Brightspace Gallery, Melbourne
2021 Future Now (Aesthetica Art Prize) York Art Gallery, UK
2021 New H.C. Andersen Museum opening, Odense Denmark
2021 Taiwan Lantern Festival, Hsinchu, Taiwan
2021 Canal Convergence, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
2021 Light & Dark, MARS gallery, Melbourne
2022 Taiwan Lantern Festival, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2022 Light Show, MARS gallery, Melbourne
2022 FOR_MAT Festival, USA
2022 Art Field Nanhai, China
2023 Pitch Festival, Australia
2023 CODAawards winner exhibition, Octagon Gallery, Washington USA
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2008 The Totem Project, Shifted Gallery, Melbourne
2010 Illume, James Gray Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
2010 Illume, Demossa Gallery, Laguna Beach, USA
2011 Synergy, Kaleidoscope Gallery, Sydney
2013 A Momentary Lapse of Darkness, Anita Traverso Gallery, Melbourne
2017 Arc Eight – Vertice, Incinerator Gallery, Moonee Ponds
AWARDS / residencies / grants etc..
2000 Albany Art Prize
2007 Agendo Art Award (finalist)
2009 Poimena Art Award (finalist)
2009 Darebin LaTrobe Art Award (finalist)
2011 Corrangamarah Art Prize (finalist)
2011 Toyota Community Spirit Gallery Travel Award
2012 Point B Artist Worklodge, Brooklyn, NY (residency)
2012 City of Devonport Art Award (finalist)
2013 City of Yarra Small Projects Grant (x2)
2014 City of Yarra Arts Development Grant (As Globelight)
2017 Omachi, Japan. (For the Japan Alps Art Festival)
2018 Boulder, Colorado, USA. Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art / SWOON residency.
2018 Aesthetica International Art Prize (long list finalist)
2021 Aesthetica International Art Prize (short list)
2022 Lake Art Prize, MAC Yapang (finalist)
2022 CODAAwards Landscape category winner
PERMANENT PUBLIC COMMISSIONS
2016 Cirque Apartments, Perth. “Chroma Flow”
2016 Northbridge Bottleyard, Perth. “Reflection Refraction”
2017 MixC World, Shenzhen, China “Diaphanous Bloom”
2021 Weiwuying City Park, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. “Arc ZERO: Eclipse”
2022 Chelsea Station, Melbourne “Pluma”
COLLECTIONS
Curtin Collection, ArtBank
and various private collections in Australia and internationally.
PUBLICATIONS
Illume – James Tapscott and Scott Baker
The Totem Project - James Tapscott and Scott Baker
Globelight '13
Globelight ‘14
Globelight ‘16
Future Now - 100 contemporary artists. Aesthetica magazine 2018
Future Now - 100 contemporary artists. Aesthetica magazine 2021
Top 25 international creative revolutionaries - CODAworx - 2022
Founder, Creative Director of Globelight Inc. (est. 2013)
Founding member of the Australian Arts Party