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.

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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