JAMES JOHNSON-PERKINS

James Johnson-Perkins is a British award-winning artist whose interdisciplinary practice bridges contemporary art, digital culture using NASA and AI technology, and social engagement. In recent years, he has lived and worked internationally, including in India, Turkey, the USA, Slovakia, Italy, Nepal, Russia, Oman, China, and the UK. He has exhibited widely across Europe, Asia, and North America, including a presentation at Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria, a leading global platform for art, technology, and society. He has also exhibited twice during the prestigious Venice Biennale, marking a significant highlight within his international exhibition history. Most recently, his work was presented at Jaipur Arts Week (2026). 

Recent exhibitions include Jaipur Arts Week 5, The GenAI Summit at ArtX Gallery, San Francisco and The Palace of Fine Arts, USA, Post Digital Reality at the Video Art International Festival, Austria and Nord Art, Budelsdorf, Germany. Additional major exhibitions include The Emily Harvey Foundation (Venice, Italy), The Royal College of Art (London, UK), The Centre for Contemporary Art (Glasgow, Scotland), The Chinese European Art Centre (Xiamen, China), Toyota Museum of Modern Art (Toyota City, Japan), Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (South Korea), The Patan Museum (Kathmandu, Nepal), Austin Museum of Digital Art (USA), and The Arts Students League (New York, USA).

Johnson-Perkins' practice draws from areas of: memory, nostalgia and play. It touches on important contemporary themes such as: Ethics, Religion, The Uncanny, Migration, Capitalism, Politics and War. He creates Taxonomies of narratives, which also in themselves explore history, identity, and place. His work uses an assemblage of: digital collage, childhood materials, nostalgic objects, costume, new media and drawing, and is divided into 4 different areas: 

GIGATAGE - GIGAPAN/MONTAGE These GIGATAGE works are ultra-large scale digital images made with Gigapan technology mixed with montaged elements which are epic landscapes of modern and historical figures in renowned sites and civic squares, including: The Rialto Bridge/Venice, Times Square/New York, Red Square/Moscow, Patan Square in Kathmandu and Brighton Pier. By carefully selecting and positioning the figures based on different themes: Ethics, Religion, The Uncanny, Refuge and War, Johnson-Perkins creates Taxonomies of these narratives, which in themselves explore history, identity, and place. These works also connect with iconic historic artists, specific artworks and thinkers, which are reflected in the GIGATAGE titles such as: Canaletto, Raphael, Bosch, Gericault, Schopenhauer and Confucius. The use of Gigapan technology and Montage in digital art represents an exciting new frontier in the medium, allowing the artist to create incredibly detailed and immersive works that captures the beauty and complexity of our world. Gigapan technology uses robotic cameras to take hundreds or thousands of high-resolution photographs, which are then stitched together into a single, seamless panoramic image. This allows for incredible detail and clarity in the final image, which can be printed at a large scale without losing resolution. 

PLAXIS - PLAY/PRAXIS PLAXIS artworks by Johnson-Perkins utilize a combination of PLAY and PRAXIS. Here he incorporates childhood toys, puzzles, and games, which explore abstraction and nostalgia. Through these explorations Johnson-Perkins delves into his own relationship with childlike creativity and invites viewers to do the same. By using childhood materials in these fun and engaging works, such as: Lego, Mega blocks, Robots, Superheroes Motifs and Football references from the 80’s, Johnson-Perkins wants the viewer to engage with their own creativity and imagination, and to consider the significance of these objects beyond their personal connection and to create a deeper understanding of the cultural and social context of childhood materials and their significance. 

INTERACTIVE/READYMADES INTERMADES are all about Interactivity, which involve using existing games and objects as a starting point and are brought to life using artscores. These artscores are a set of instructions that guide an interaction or activity involving the game or object, such as a Giant Twister Game ‘TWIST’ or a mammoth Hula hoop Sculpture ‘HULA’. By using pre-existing games and objects, here he is able to tap into the existing cultural and emotional experiences relating to various game-like activities and scenarios, while also subverting and re-contextualizing them. This often creates a sense of playfulness, surprise, and excitement, as well as creating an invitation for viewers to participate and engage with artworks in new and unexpected ways. The use of artscores in the INTERMADES creates a collaborative and participatory aspect to these artworks, inviting others to interpret and enact the instructions in their own unique ways. This can create a sense of shared ownership around the artworks, as well as opening up new possibilities for exploration and discovery.

VIDEOSTALGIA - VIDEO/NOSTALGIA Johnson-Perkins’ VIDEOSTALGIA works combine important and poignant places, such as: Venice, New York, Moscow, Kathmandu and Muscat. They also contain performance to camera, nostalgic music, and re-framed well known and culturally loved music and TV programs, which include remakes of 80’s songs, such as Queen’s ‘I want to break Free’, and episodes of ‘The A Team’ and ‘Knight Rider’ changed into ASCII Code and ZX Spectrum Graphics. In these VIDEOSTALGIA works, the artist tries to capture the essence of particular times and places, and explores emotions and memories associated with it. By combining film, music, and performance, he creates a multi-sensory experience that transports viewers, whilst also inviting them to reflect on their own experiences and emotions that relate to former retrospective times. These works also aim to shed new light and to offer fresh perspectives and interpretations and represent exciting and innovative way to explore the complex interplay between memory, nostalgia, and cultural ‘POP’ heritage. INTERMADES - 

Jaipur Arts Week 5, Jan 2026 

Visual Arts Journal, Sep 24