ABOUT
‘If I were called in to construct a religion, I should make use of water.’
Philip Larkin
I am driven by field observation and a sustained engagement with scientific enquiry particularly in the field, with a continued lifelong dedication to exploring the liquid mechanics of water. Through large-format analogue photography and chiaroscuro lighting, I construct underwater tableaux shaped in real time by gravity, surface tension, and the behaviour of light. The resulting works carry a painterly density that is closer in temperament to painting than I could ever have imagined, where tenebrism becomes both method and metaphor.
Spanning photography, film, sculpture, painting and site specific sculptural installations all of which refuse to be confined by traditional gallery and museum architecture alone. Historically my past exhibitions were more often developed through site specific projects, remote solo expeditions or social interventions, I really do believe in the importance of cultivating a long standing commitment to arts education, sustainability and the cultural responsibilities of making.
Photography has remained the cornerstone of my practice throughout every phase of my work, continually opening into new formal and conceptual possibilities. All photographic bodies of work created after November 2013 are realised as unique prints, accompanied by two artist proofs, each of which differ in scale and execution; no editions are released. This decision marks a deliberate departure from the reproducible logic of photography.
By producing only unique prints from post 2013 collections, I establish a clear rupture within the framework of photographic practice, with scarcity I create a sustained tension between photography’s reproducible past and its present assertion as a singular, unrepeatable object.
Installation view of ‘Renaciendo’
Recent site specific projects include establishing the Red October Studio in Moscow; founding the Dark Vat artist residency that reactivated an abandoned photographic paper factory in Siberia; Renaciendo, a landmark project that reopened Spain’s last standing Carmelite convent after more than 170 years of closure; designing and building Makers Place, the first carbon-neutral single-use plastic and aluminium recycling facility to begin operations in the Maldives.
Together, these projects reflect an enduring commitment to meaningful practice while fostering both cultural and environmental stewardship.
Alexander James Hamilton
(also known as Alexander James)
born 1967, London.
Studio, Madrid.
Makers Place recycling studio in the Maldives designed & built from the ground up
REPRESENTATION
Rakov Gallery - St Petersburg, Moscow & Yekaterinburg, Russia.
Marita Segovia Gallery - Madrid, Spain.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS (selected)
2025 ‘Goya, reborn in water’ in the 10th-century Castillo de la Piedra Bermeja.
2021 ‘Drink Less’ sculpture exhibition made from island cleanup interventions.
2020 ‘Renaciendo’, derelict Baroque Carmelite convent dating from 1688.
2019 ‘Breaking the plastic habit’ public installation for Climate Week, London.
2018 ‘Visions from the shoreline’ Dellasposa Gallery, London.
2017 ‘Death of the dream’ Dellasposa Gallery, London.
2017 ‘All icons are false’ D-Contemporary Gallery, London.
2016 ‘The illusion of oil’ Ekaterinburg, Russia.
2015 ‘Oil + Water’ site-specific installation in the forests of Siberia.
2014 ‘Vanitas’ Cafe Royal, London.
2014 ‘Rastvorennaya Pechal’ Triumph Gallery, Moscow.
2013 ‘Intersection’ London.
2012 ‘A beautiful announcement of death’ PA&G Gallery, London.
2010 ‘Taxi’ Ann330 Gallery, Los Angeles.
2010 ‘Tokyo Green’ Conningsby Gallery, London.
2009 ‘Space & Time’, London.
2008 ‘Working Water’ RCP Gallery, Sydney.
2006 ‘Flight’ The Boiler House, Shanghai.
2004 ‘Shift’ 109 Building, Shibuya, Tokyo.
2003 ‘No Logo’ Maison Bastille, Paris.
2002 ‘The Colour Candy’ G & A Gallery, Sydney.
2000 ‘Flesh & Foliage’ Loft 56, New York.
1999 ‘Liquid Mechanics’ 18 installations mapping endangered chalk streams, UK..
1996 ´Defluxio' deviation plinths installed within Los Angeles floodwater causeways, USA.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS (selected)
2021 'Objects & Structures', Russian Academy Of Science.
2019 ‘Dark Vat’ re-purposing a disused photographic paper factory in Siberia.
2018 ‘Site Unseen’, Dellasposa Gallery, London.
2017 ‘Contemporary Still Life’, City of London Guildhall, London.
2017 ‘Ars Moriendi’, Dellasposa Gallery, London.
2017 ‘Vanitas’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Four Domes Pavilion, Warsaw.
2016 ‘Still Life’, Bohuslans Museum, Sweden.
2016 ‘Reinvigorating the Still Life’, Konsthallen Bohuslän Museum, Sweden.
2015 ‘Natre Morte’, Hå Gamle Prestegard Museum exhibition, Stavanger, Norway.
2011 ‘Iconoclasts’, Lloyds Club, London.
2011 ‘The House of the Nobleman’, London.
2011 ‘Still Even’, Pertwee Anderson & Gold Gallery, London.
2010 ‘You Are Here’, Flaere Gallery, London.
PROJECTS (selected)
2024 ‘Designing A Circular Future’ A series of university circular design workshops.
2022 ‘Waste to Wealth’ plastic & aluminium recycling workshops.
2021 Siberian winter studio relocation to complete unfinished works from ‘Oil + Water’.
2021 Design & install a plastic & aluminium recycling facility, Maldives.
2020 Opening the last Baroque Carmelite convent, closed for 170 years.
2019 Keynote speaker and studio host to the Plastic Free Design Workshop, Siberia.
2019 ‘Dark Vat’ artist residency, 15 artists in a disused photographic paper factory.
2019 Invited as a keynote speaker at Plastic Free Maldives legacy workshop.
2018 20 works donated to fully fund a community plastic & aluminium recycling facility.
2017 Studio relocates Baa Atoll, Maldives to create ´Visions from the shoreline´.
2015 Studio relocates to the forests of Siberia to create a new body of work ‘Oil + Water’.
2014 Artist talk ‘Deconstructing Flow Practice’ Cafe Royal, London.
2013 Studio relocates to ‘Red October’ chocolate factory, Moscow.
2012 ‘Tokyo Taxi’ — a collection of photography & texts (2002–2012) published by Merrell.
1995 Fabricated & distributed salt-water solar stills to remote island nation inhabitants.
1986 9-month kayak expedition, Maldives, distributing aluminium can crushers.
Selected Auction Results (pdf)
primary & secondary market sales
DOWNLOAD ARTIST BIOGRAPHY (pdf)