About

Born in Oxford in 1984, at an early age James Watkins emigrated to Auckland, New Zealand. In his late teens, he committed to his interest in photography and writing before travelling New Zealand and living in the rural communities of Golden Bay and Great Barrier Island. During this time he won first prize at the Golden Bay Art Awards and held his first solo photographic exhibition.

In 2010, he relocated to Australia where he spent five years between Melbourne and Sydney. Here, he immersed himself in the contemporary art world, launching an online magazine– working as as an editor-in-chief, writer and photographer. His experience in arts journalism resulted in the development of his own mixed media painting practice focusing on self-analysis, abstraction and experimental mark making.

After leaving Australia in 2015, he moved through Oxfordshire and Istanbul before spending a year in Paris where he expanded his visual art onto the streets and continued to develop his photographic practice. Returning to London, in 2019 he held his first solo painting exhibition, Somewhere Between, followed by his second, Jewels for Everyone, in Hackney.

In 2021, James moved to Mexico City where he continued to paint and worked as an arts writer, consultant and photographer while helping to establish contemporary art space Casa Astrónoma. Here, with Ambar Quijano, he held his third painting exhibition Future Paradise– inspired by the colours, natural forms, and history of Mexico. In 2024 he returned to New Zealand for his first painting show in Aotearoa, I am Nature Let me in, at Wellington's Twentysix Gallery.

James currently resides in Auckland, and continues to explore his interest in the natural world through painting, writing and photography.

Selected Exhibitions

2019 - Somewhere Between (solo) - Three Colt Gallery, London
2021 - Jewels for Everyone (solo) - Nam House Gallery, London
2022 - Bluenude showcase - Hackney Downs Studios (solo) - London
2023 - Nature Holds a Mirror (group) - Ambar Quijano, Mexico City
2023 - Future Paradise (solo) - Ambar Quijano, Mexico City
2024 - Secret Garden (group) - 11Contemporary Art Center - Shenzhen
2024 - New Collectors (group) - Frame Gallery, Auckland
2025 - I am nature let me in (solo) - Twentysix Gallery, Wellington

Selected Exhibitions

Selected Exhibitions
2019 - Somewhere Between (solo) - Three Colt Gallery, London
2021 - Jewels for Everyone (solo) - Nam House Gallery, London
2022 - Bluenude showcase - Hackney Downs Studios (solo) - London
2023 - Nature Holds a Mirror (group) - Ambar Quijano, Mexico City
2023 - Future Paradise (solo) - Ambar Quijano, Mexico City
2024 - Secret Garden (group) - 11Contemporary Art Center - Shenzhen
2024 - New Collectors (group) - Frame Gallery, Auckland
2025 - I am nature let me in (solo) - Twentysix Gallery, Wellington

Photos: Mark Russell / Chloe Mason

James Watkins

Artist

jamesterencewatkins@gmail.com
@james_watkins