James Lieutenant

b. 1986, Canberra , Australia
Lives and works in Canberra, Australia

James Lieutenant is an Australian visual artist, currently based in Canberra. His art practice considers the history of painting, from Renaissance and Baroque periods through to Colour Fields and Gestural Abstraction. Through research and experimentation, he finds ways to utilize painting techniques from these periods in his own contemporary art practice. 

His work often focuses on chance-based, gritty and abject textures, linking this to trauma in his own personal history and that of the world around him. The paintings often creating a tension between a photographic register and a gesture of the hand. Through his art practice, he is attempting to combine seemingly opposing pursuits of visualizing trauma, vulnerability and beauty simultaneously.  

James Lieutenant’s artworks are held in numerous public and private collections across Australia, including Artbank and Goulburn Regional Gallery. He graduated from the Australian National University School of Art in 2010, with a major in Painting, a minor in Screen Printing and Honours in Photomedia. He has since exhibited throughout Australia, including solo shows at Bus Projects (Melbourne), Galerie pompom (Sydney) and Canberra Contemporary Art Space. 

He was awarded the 2013 Linden Postcard Prize by Linden Centre for Contemporary Art (Victoria) and was selected to participate in the invitation only National Artists' Self-Portrait Prize at The University of Queensland Art Museum in 2015. His work has been written about in Art Collector, Art Monthly Australasia and The Art Life.

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All copy photography by Document Photography