In the Studio: James Rawson

Artist James Rawson (b. February 1, 1989) in Norfolk England is a postmodern pop artist.  Predominantly working in the medium of collage and painting, James found no inspiration in the beautiful Norfolk landscape he grew up in. Instead realizing the landscape of pop culture fed to him via the media had more relevance. 

James’ work blurs the boundaries between collage and painting, using preparatory paper collages as reference for his larger paintings. He aims to reflect the multi-layered visual experience we all live in. Appropriating the very images that have become implicit in our society, James’ work disturbs our sense of reality and confuses our pre-conceived perception of popular culture. 

James’ work addresses one of the most important issues of the last 50 years; over- consumption, greed, inequality and life as a spectacle. James’ work screams at you, there is no room for prevarication. It deals with the ubiquity of advertising, sex selling everything, fast food and TV as the drug of a nation. So perhaps you don’t like what you see, the bawdy reality, the cheap thrill, the constant accumulation of sweet things, processed and plastic things to unnatural things: but it doesn’t take away from the fact — it’s the truth. 

James completed a BA Honors in Fine Art at Loughborough University in 2011 and currently lives and works in Norfolk, England.