My recent sculptures are intended to convey the instability of our culturally conditioned insatiable manufactured appetites which distances us perpetually further from the natural environment. In the production of my work, I am very studio oriented, taking the position that process matters; materials have intelligence. Clay is the ideal medium for me because it responds to the impressions my body’s movement produces in the here and now. Clay is the ideal record of existence. So in my sculptures, I work with time, pressure and gravity; the same forces through which clay is formed.
Artist Bio
James Kemp studied at Kwanten Poly Technic University and Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Kemp's sculptures are in collections of the NY Fire House Gallery and the Museum of Modern Ceramic Art Gifu, Japan. His work will be the 2017 Access Gallery Fundraiser Auction. After working as an artist assistant for local sculptors Liz Magor and David Robinson, during which he helped produce work for the National gallery of Canada, Catriona Jeffries Gallery and a variety of public sculpture commissions throughout BC, Kemp has directed his energy to his studio practice. He has shown at gallery Fukai, Circle Craft Gallery, The Leo Koo gallery, the Windsor gallery, La Mur gallery, and at the international emerging ceramic arts exhibition in New York; his work was featured in the 2014 international ceramics festival/competition in Mino Japan where his work was awarded a Special Judges Award. More recently his sculpture Morphology IV was awarded an honorable mention at America's Clay Fest in California. His work has been featured in The Peace Arch, The Vancouver sun, The Tri City News, The Westender, Vancouver Co-Op Radio, and Ballad Of Magazine.