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James Roseveare

Member of the Royal Society of Sculptors

Roseveare has exhibited internationally and in the UK including at the Istanbul Art Fair; Saatchi Gallery; Venice Biennale; Kinokino, Sandnes (Norway); Museo MACO (Mexico) and Aspex Portsmouth (Emergency2021. He works with sculpture, installation, video and performance. His work predominately focuses on the complex relationship between culture and landscape.

Concrete/debris mix, plastic straws, manure, London clay, dog hair, broken glass, screws, feathers, plum stone, grass seed and more

Stelae for foreign bodies

‘Stelae for Foreign Bodies’ investigates the nature of the landscape and the traces humanity leaves behind on a micro and macro level. The work references memorials, anthropology, geology, and archaeology. It contrasts decay and new life: seeds within may germinate as other fragments decay over time, exposing a treasure trove of detritus from the meaningful to the mundane.

Artist statement

My art practice investigates the perception and making of landscape, focussing on the complex, ever-changing and entangled relationships between people, nature and culture. An arboricultural background of working with trees for over 35 years grounds my practice in an understanding of the material. Tree surgery is a form of sculpture with living entities that change with cycles of growth, decline and decay. This informs my approach to form, function, mutability and time in making sculpture.

I have been using industrial building materials for over 15 years manipulating material, form, and evoking timescales to fabricate a fusion of antiquity and the contemporary. Work often incorporates concrete, organic materials and debris swept from surrounding ground surfaces; seeds embedded within may germinate and sprout new life as other materials decay. Balanced blocks use kinaesthetic tension to unsettle or provoke curiosity, while modular and standardised building materials evoke the scale and contingency of the human body. I explore the boundaries of conventional fabrication, integrating decay and renewal; techniques that elicit a sense of reverse archaeology and industrial fossilisation, evoking environmental change and deep time.

Artist CV

Selected solo exhibitions / residencies

 

Feb – July 22 balckShed Gallery Residency | ACE funded | Roberstbridge, East Sussex

Dec – Jan 21/22 Onetoten Gallery | Hastings

Feb – Aug18 Tree Sense | Arts for Health Residency | with Boyd & Evans | Milton Keynes, Bucks

Sept – Dec 16 Stelae for Foreign Bodies | Artists Residency | Elements Gallery | commissioner: Rebecca Feiner | London E8

April – Oct 15 Field | Farley Farm House Sculpture Garden | + Arts Award | commissioner: Anthony Penrose | Chiddingly, East Sussex

Sept 11 Fish Stock | Coastal Currents Spotlight | The Stade Project Space, Hastings

2004 – 05 The Florence Trust Residency | The Florence Trust, London

Selected group exhibitions

2022

Dec – Feb Hulabhaig Winter Open 2021/22 | Hulabhaig Gallery, Isle of Lewis HS2 9JJ

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2021

April Tracks and Traces | Virtual exhibition | AIR Contemporary Gallery | curator : Becky Wild | Altrincham, UK

June Coming up for Air | The London Group and Friends | curator: Clive Burton | Waterloo Festival, London

July Can we ever know the meaning of these objects | Gallery 46 | curators: Kevin Quigley, Sarah Sparkes | London E1 2AJ

Aug – Oct EMERGENCY 2021 | ASPEX Gallery | curator: Vickie Fear | The Vulcan Building, Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth, PO1 3BF

Aug – Sept AIR Open | AIR Contemporary Gallery | Altrincham, WA14 1LE

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2020

March Zuzushii Art Laboratory | curators: Tim Can and Fumico Azuma | Hastings TN34 IJY, UK

May – Dec Hastings Open 2020 | Hastings Museum, East Sussex

May Hulabhaig Uig Open 2020 | Re-imagined Online | Hulabhaig Gallery, Isle of Lewis HS2 9JJ

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2019

July Liminality4 | Gallery46 | with Jake Chapman + | curators: Sean McLusky & Bjorn Hatleskog | London E1 2AJ

June Come Hell or High Water | The London Group + | curators: Almuth Tebbenhoff, Cadi Froehlich | Waterloo Festival, London

May – Aug Miniscule Venice | curator: Vanya Balogh | 58th La Biennale Di Venezia. Fondamenta Sant’Anna 996 Castello. Venice, 30122

Feb – May Empire II After Extinction | Museo MACO | Oaxaca, Mexico

Feb Four legs good, two legs bad | The Year of the Pig | curator: Rebecca Feiner | Q Park, Leicester Sq, London

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2018

Oct Protocol (Frieze Week) | Q Park, Cavendish Square, London W1

June Nothing Endures but Change | The London Group and Friends | curator: Susan Haire | Waterloo Festival, London

April – Sept Sweep-Landskip | with Derek Jarman and Peter Joseph | curator: Roberto Ekholm (ECKO) | Kinokino, Sandnes, Norway

Feb Embracing the Underdog | curator Susan Haire, President of The London Group | Q Park, Chinatown, London W1

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2008 – 2017

April 17 Speedway | with Luci Eyers and Andrew Kotting | Transition Gallery, London E8

May 17> Aug 19 Empire II | Film shorts | Curator Vanya Balogh | 57th Biennale di Venezia, Italy

(Touring – Tallin, Estonia; Madrid, Spain; Paris, France; Zagreb, Croatia; Oaxaca, Mexico)

2015 Sotto Vocci | Italian artists exchange | Hastings, East Sussex

Chinese Open | Year of the Sheep | Q Park, Chinatown, London W1

2014 Le Voci Rotrovate | Artists Residency | Corigliano d’Otranto, Italy

Marvellous Mix Ups | with Cedric Christie and Vanya Balogh + | Fulham, London

We are Oak Passage | with Andrew Kotting and Greig Burgoyne | Stour Valley Arts, Kent

2013 Strarta Art Fair | Saatchi Gallery, London SW3

Twelve by Six | De La Warr Pop Up Gallery, Bexhill

2012 Artbeat Festival | Cairo, Alexandria, El Mansoura, Egypt

2011 Art in Romney Marsh | Folkestone Triennial Fringe, Romney Marsh

2010 From A to B | Anglo-French exhibition | Dover

East Sussex Open | The Towner Gallery, Eastbourne

2009 International Art Symposium (selected artist) | Patras, Greece

Shot by the Sea | with Ben Rivers and Andrew Kotting | Claremont, Hastings

2008 The 18th Istanbul Art Fair | Tuyap, Istanbul, Turkey

 

Education

1995 – 98 London College of Communication | BA. First Class Hons. Photography

1982 – 85 Askham Bryan College, York | Nat.Dip.Arboriculture. Royal Forestry Certificate