James Owens' work delicately balances figuration and abstraction. The ethereal works portray outdoor settings teeming with untamed flora and fauna, delving into repetition while featuring an experimental style that incorporates a rich variety of brush strokes and mark-making techniques, Owen’s paintings explore deep interior worlds, all the while keeping the ultimate outcome shrouded in mystery.
In his works, Owens seamlessly blends memory, heritage, contemporary culture, and imagination, weaving entirely new narratives that flourish in moments of ambiguity. Viewers are introduced to a world of outsiders infatuated with the unknown, eager to believe in something more. Owens conjures imagined landscapes and figures deeply engaged in the act of searching and experiencing, achieved through a wide range of painting techniques, allowing abstracted elements to fade and emerge within the canvas.
Camberwell College of Arts and a BA in Illustration and Visual Media from London College of Communication. Recent solo and group exhibitions include At twilight / at dawn, Public Gallery, London (2026); Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, Galeria Pelaires, Mallorca (2025); The Armory Show, Newchild Gallery, New York City (2025); Allus Do It Fer Thissen, Pilar Corrias, London (2025, solo); Wayward, Newchild Gallery, Antwerp (2025); Penumbra, Newchild Gallery at Frieze No.9 Cork Street, London (2025); Rooted, Berntson Bhattacharjee, London (2024); Art Brussels, Newchild, Brussels (2024); Out of Earth, The Approach, London (2024); Kiaf Seoul, Newchild Gallery, Seoul (2024); Disembodied, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles (2024); Once, Then, Gone, Newchild, Antwerp (2023); A New Sensation, Galerie Marguo, Paris (2023); The Moth and the Thunderclap, Stuart Shave Modern Art, London (2023); Dreaming of UFOs, Lychee One Gallery, London (2022, solo); Unfair Weather, Lychee One Gallery, London (2021); PPP on Paper, Painters Painting Paintings, online exhibition (2021); Spring Fling, All Mouth Gallery, London (2021); What I See I Will Never Tell, Wilder Gallery, London (2021). Owens has been shortlisted for the Evening Standard Prize (2018). The artist lives and works in London.