James Johnson-Perkins is a British award-winning artist whom in recent times has lived and worked in Turkey, USA, Slovakia, Italy, Nepal, Russia, Oman, China and the UK. Johnson-Perkins has exhibited in important and leading venues in Europe, Asia and North America, Including: Ars Electronica Centre, Linz, Austria, Nord Art, Budelsdorf, Germany, 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, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, The Patan Museum, Kathmandu, Nepal, Austin Museum of Digital Art, Austin, USA and The Arts Student League, New York, USA. 

In 2021 he won the Mediterranean Contemporary Art Prize, President's Award.      He was the Runner up for the Alpine Fellowship, Visual Arts Prize and he was an award winner for the Art Observatory Digital Art Program, Ukraine/UK. He was also a finalist for the 'Airland 4.0 | Nature, Technology, Energy' Competition and he was shortlisted for the Passpartout Photo Prize, Italy.

In 2024 he was the artist in residence at Le Maison De Barbara, Ayvalik, Turkey and in 2021, Johnson-Perkins was involved with two digital residencies at: The Belgrave Arts Studio, Serbia and Correlation Contemporary, Peru and his work was recenty shown at: Ely Centre of Contemporary Art, USA, Czong Institute for Contemporary Art, South Korea, The Rotterdam Photo Festival, Holland, Florence Contemporary Gallery, Italy, Austral Festival Internacional de Performance Art de Buenos Aires, Argentina, Ars Electronica, Austria and Bekarei Video Art Space, Berlin, and he was also featured in BOSS Magazine, China, Al-Tiba9 Contemporary Art Magazine, Spain and Aerogramme Magazine, USA and Landescape Magazine.

Johnson-Perkins’ art practice has always intersected contemporary art and culture, and social practice. Previous art events he has created have included attempting to beat the world record for the most amount of people doing robotics, in Poole (Kube) and West Bromwich (The Public). Facilitating various Giant Play/Lego exhibitions and Lego workshops in various venues across the UK, (Incl. Durham DLI, King’s Lynn Arts Centre, Kube Gallery (Poole), The Public (West Bromwich) and he has also worked with the Baltic Gallery, Gateshead as an Arts Facilitator where he was also involved in a wide range of education and community arts workshops.

Primarily 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:

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.

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.

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 - 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.

Johnson-Perkins has exhibited work in over 50 International arts Events/Festivals.including: Lux Artist Film Festival, London, England, The Digital Long Island Media Festival, New York, USA, The Athens Photo Festival, Greece, and The Hay-On-Wye Festival, Wales. He has shown work during the Venice Biennale twice, exhibiting at the Galleria Perela (2011) and The Emily Harvey Foundation (2013).

4 Films, Videostalgia

Johnson-Perkins has participated on many prestigious artist residencies programs, Including at: The Belgrade Art Studio, Serbia, The British School at Rome, Italy, The Emily Harvey Foundation Residency, Venice, Italy, The Art Student League of New York, USA, The Chinese European Arts Centre Residency, Xiamen, China.The Bridge Guard Residency, Sturovo, Slovakia, and The Kathmandu Contemporary Art Centre Residency, Patan Museum, Nepal.