James Faure Walker

 

James Faure Walker (b.1948) studied at St Martins (1966-70) and the Royal College of Art (1970-1972). Solo exhibitions include Manchester’s Whitworth Gallery (1985), Colville Place Gallery (1998, 2000), Galerie Wolf Lieser, Berlin (2003), ARB Cambridge (2015). Group exhibitions include the Hayward Annual (1979), John Moores (1982, 2002), Serpentine Summer Show (1983), and regular appearances at SIGGRAPH, USA, since 1995, and DAM Gallery Berlin. He began developing computer graphics alongside his painting in 1988. He won the ‘Golden Plotter’ prize at Computerkunst, Gladbeck, Germany in 1998. He has 28 works in the V&A collection, where his work was featured in ‘Digital Pioneers’ in 2009. His book, ‘Painting the Digital River: How an Artist Learned to Love the Computer’, was published by Prentice Hall (USA) in 2006, and awarded a New England Book Show Award. He was a founder of Artscribe magazine in 1976, editing it for eight years. Till 2014 he was Reader in Painting and the Computer at Chelsea, University of the Arts. In 2013 he won the Royal Watercolour Society Award. Currently he is the Honorary Curator of the RWS.

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Critics have commented on the lyricism and exuberant colour of James Faure Walker’s paintings. They have mentioned his independent stand, using photos of pedestrians, birds, shops, at the same time as having developed an ‘abstract’ language. As Stuart Morgan wrote in 1985, “His doubt may lead to one of those careers which bridges older and newer practice, and which opens more doors than it closes”.   

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Writing recently of watercolour, James Faure Walker said: "I want my pictures to look fresh, luminous, caught in the moment, but also off guard and unexplained. I admire Turner’s ambition, the expertise, the freedom - also Cezanne and Sam Francis. They were not watercolour specialists, but I cannot imagine their paintings without that watery touch. Nor can I imagine how I could work now without using digital paint alongside other media."

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Exhibitions:

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James Faure Walker: Recent Paintings  18 May - 15 June 2019, Felix & Spear, London (press release and brochure).

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James Faure Walker: Paintings of the Seventies and Eighties  7 July - 29 August 2021, Felix & Spear, London (press release).

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James Faure Walker: How It Works 4 November - 4 December 2022, Felix & Spear, London (press release).

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James Faure Walker: Paintings and Sightings  9 May 2022 - 31 Aug 2023, Clifford Chance, Canary Wharf. Curated and arranged by Frank/Hindley Art Consultants. (pdf brochure)