CV

I am driven by a lifelong interest in field observation and scientific discovery, with a particular focus on the liquid mechanics of water, an obsession that has guided my focus for more than forty years. Through large format analogue photography and chiaroscuro lighting, I have refined a distinctive painterly aesthetic, creating works that appear more like paintings than photographs. Working with the grande dame of film, the 8×10 plate, I construct my tableaux entirely underwater. This process allows me to paint the subject with light using my hand or brush directly on the surface tension of the water, re-enacting the spirit of Caravaggio through deep tenebrism. Every element within my projects is produced by hand in the studio or on location during expedition based projects, and each piece is created entirely in-camera, without any form of post-production.

My work spans sculpture, painting, photography, film, lighting, and installation. Not expressly limited by the architectural confines of the art world, I engage the broader public sphere through interventions within natural landscapes and civic spaces, alongside ongoing commitments to arts education, policy-making and sustainability.

Since 2013 all photographic prints are unique, with no editions ever to be released. The reproducible nature of digital photography is both its strength and its limitation; I am provoked by the notion that a painting is perceived as more valuable primarily because of its singularity. To challenge this perception, I now produce only unique prints, creating a deliberate tension between the individuality of each artwork and the relinquished reproducible past.

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  b.1967  London.
Studio, Madrid.

Makers Place recycling studio

 

REPRESENTATION
Rakov Gallery   - St Petersburg, Moscow & Yekaterinburg, Russia.

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

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