About
James Tapscott, artist and designer.
As a contemporary land artist, I create site-determined works in locations where the natural world becomes both setting and collaborator. Rooted in minimal aesthetics and made with elemental materials — often water, mist, light — my work invites a heightened sensory experience, one that is felt as much as seen.
Each piece emerges through a dialogue with place, shaped by local natural phenomena and cultural contexts. These ephemeral, responsive installations act as instruments, finely tuned for the site to play — never fully complete until the environment itself has spoken.
My practice explores how perception is a fluid, constructed experience, and how attunement to landscape can foster a deeper understanding of our relationship with the natural world. Through this, I aim to evoke a sense of coexistence — not as concept, but as lived experience.
CV
Born 1980 in Perth, Western Australia.
Currently lives and works in Melbourne, Australia
EDUCATION
Curtin University (Western Australia) 1997-99
SELECTED FESTIVALS AND MAJOR EXHIBITIONS
2025 GLEAM, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
2025 Seedscapes, Wakehurst Royal Botanic Gardens, UK
2025 Inspirational, Shrewsbury Museum of Art, UK
2025 Dazzle of Darkness, BMoCA, Colorado, USA
2024 iLight Marina Bay, Singapore
2024 Ten Nights of Dreams, Jinquashi, Taiwan
2024 Green Box Summer Arts Festival, Colorado, USA
2023 CODAaward Winners, Octagon Gallery, Washington DC, USA
2022 Taiwan Lantern Festival, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2022 FOR-MAT Festival, Arkansas, USA
2022 Art Field Nanhai, Foshan, China
2021 RISING, Melbourne, Australia
2021 Taiwan Lantern Festival, Hsinchu, Taiwan
2021 Canal Convergence, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA
2021 New HC Andersen Museum Opening, Odense, Denmark
2021 Future Now, York Art Gallery, UK
2020 Changwon Sculpture Biennale, Korea
2020 Light + Life, Brightspace Gallery, Melbourne
2019 Continuous Refle(a)ction, Riverside Art Museum, Beijing, China
2019 Sensory Canvas, Ming Contemporary, Shanghai, China
2019 The Upcoming Past, Beipu, Taiwan
2019 Sharjah Islamic Art Festival, UAE
2018 Dark MOFO, Hobart, Australia
2017 Japan Alps Art Festival, Omachi, Japan
2014 Without a Shadow of a Dao, Anita Traverso Gallery, Melbourne
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Photo-Synthesis, GOCA, Colorado Springs, CO, USA
2024 400 Millennium, 5 Microns, Dairy Arts Centre, Boulder, CO, USA
2017 Arc Eight - Vertice, Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne
2013 A Momentary Lapse of Darkness, Anita Traverso Gallery, Melbourne
2011 Synergy, Kaleidoscope Gallery, Sydney
2010 Illume, James Gray Gallery, LA, USA
2010 Illume, Demosa Gallery, Laguna Beach, USA
SELECTED AWARDS / RECOGNITION
2025 LIT Awards - Design of the year (Arc ZERO: Eclipse)
2023 Artsted Magazine - 99 Global Blue Chip Artists
2022 CODAaward - Winner, Landscape Category (Arc ZERO: Eclipse)
2022 Codaworx - Top 25 Creative Revolutionaries
2021 Aesthetica International Art Prize - Shortlist
PERMANENT PUBLIC COMMISSIONS
2025 Arc ZERO: Eclipse, Seoul, Korea
2024 Pineal Arc, Melbourne, Australia
2024 Cut Line, Oklahoma City, USA
2022 Arc ZERO: Eclipse, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2022 Pluma, Melbourne
2018 Diaphanous Bloom, Shenzhen, China
2018 Reflection / Refraction, Perth, Australia
2017 Chroma Flow, Perth, Australia
COLLECTIONS
Curtin Collection, ArtBank
and various private collections in Australia and internationally.
Founder, Creative Director of Globelight Inc. (2013-2018)
Associate Teacher - Site Responsive / Sensory Design, Monash University (2022-2023)
Founding member of the Australian Arts Party