James Nizam
| Type | Artist Male |
|---|---|
| Associated person(s) | |
| URLs | Artist's page Institutions/museums Gallery Reiter Review Documentation Interview |
| Awards | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scholarship | 2017 | Forschungsstipendium | Canada Council for the Arts | Ottawa, Canada | |
| Award | 2016 | BC Arts Council Grant | BC Arts Council Grant | Victoria, Canada | |
| Award | 2015 | BC Arts Council Grant | BC Arts Council Grant | Victoria, Canada | |
| Scholarship | 2013 | Forschungs-/Arbeitsstipendium | Canada Council for the Arts | Ottawa, Canada | |
| Artist in residence | 2011 | Forschungsresidenz | University of Windsor | Ontario, Canada |
| Exhibitions | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group exhibition | 2018 | Weight of Light | Art Museum | Toronto, Canada | |
| Solo exhibition | 2017 | Stellar Spectra | R E I T E R | Berlin prospect | Berlin, Germany | |
| Solo exhibition | 2016 | Thought Forms | maerzgalerie | Berlin, Deutschland | |
| Solo exhibition | 2015 | The Mnemonic Landscape | Capture Photography Festival, Gallery Jones | Vancouver, Canada | |
| Festival | 2015 | LUX – Light Festival | Wellington, New Zealad | ||
| Festival | 2015 | Light | 18. Sharjah Islamic Arts Festival, Sharjah Art Museum | United Arab Emirates | |
| Solo exhibition | 2014 | Die Ausstellung | KIT - Kunst im Tunnel | Düsseldorf, Germany | |
| Group exhibition | 2012 | PhotoIreland | Irish Museum of Contemporary Art | Dublin, Irland | |
| 2007 | Anteroom | Gallery Jones | Vancouver, Canada | ||
| Group exhibition | 2003 | Inventing Spaces | Surrey Art Gallery | Surrey, Canada |
| Publications | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monograph | 2012 | Birch Contemporary | JAMES NIZAM | Trace Heavens | 978-0-9739468-0-2 | Toronto | Birch Contemporary | |||||
| Monograph | 2011 | Peperoni Books | Tumulus | James Nizam, Roger Eberhard | 978-3-941825-30-7 | Berlin | Texts by Dion Kliner/ Ludwig Seyfarth | |||||
| Monograph | 2010 | Gallery Jones | Memorandoms | James Nizam | 978-0-9739468-4-8 | Vancouver | Text by Dion Kliner | |||||
| Monograph | 2014 | Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König | Die Ausstellung | 978-3-86335-642-2 | Colgone | Texts by Baptist Ohrtmann/ Carla Donauer/ Elke Kania |
Education
Vancouver, Canada
Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree, University of British Columbia
Born
Bedfordshire, England
Places of residence
Vancouver, Canada
James Nizam works with light - it is both his theme and material for his photographs. Artificial studio light or natural daylight directs the lines, shapes and surfaces while suggesting physicality and movement in his works. Without any tricky perceptions, Nizam is able to challenge the view of the virtuoso imaginations of objects. He can easily ignore the visual habit of only being able to capture light on the surface and transform immateriality into objectivity.
Sculptures with sunlight, drawings with flashlights, and the architectural structures of the light rays and alienated objects illuminate the beginnings of photographic art. The topics of concrete photography and the current technical possibilities of optical physics are also present. For example, Nizam installs light sources that emanate radiated light from different points of a confined space. Just like a choreographer, he is able to combine all of the beams into constellations, so that the luminous spatial lines complement each other and form geometric bodies.
The resulting convex polyhedron can be expanded into an icosahedron with 20 faces (»Thought Form«). Other works are created by pierced holes in film cassettes or freight containers into which the light is projected and creates a fan of light.
According to the models of ancient, astrological observatories and prehistoric solar calendars, Nizam (by precise calculation of the solar incidence in columns of the building exterior) creates temporary walls of light (»Shard of Light«). In »Lathes« and »Wall« he enlightens the architectural details of abstract, floating structures.
Irrespective of whether it is in a studio with artificial light or outdoors using the natural sunlight, Nizam works with materials such as colour, wood or stone. He manipulates light into lines, shapes, surfaces and textures while suggesting change and movement at the same time. The combination of both sculpture and space into light is summed up in his large-format photographs that have a highly aesthetic quality and poetic form.
https://www.reitergalleries.com/en/artists/james-nizam/ (9.12.2019)
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Shard of Light | 2011 | James Nizam | |
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Thought Forms (Fan, Fold, Cube, Tetrahdron, Dart) | 2011 | James Nizam | |