Slouching Towards Nibana Drawing

James Mylne is a London based fine artist specializing in photo-realism through the use of ballpoint pens on paper. He is considered a pioneer for the use of ballpoints in photo-realistic artwork. With the use of a normal Bic ballpoint pen (or biro) James will spend up to 300 hours working in intricate detail to create beautiful black and white drawings often combining the careful use of spray paints to add colour backgrounds & additions. Although working mostly from small, old photographs to create his fine drawings, James has collaborated with famous photographers such as Terry O’Neill, Ex Rolling Stones guitarist Bill Wyman, and Roger Eaton. Influenced by both ‘Urban Art’ and ‘Contemporary Art’ Mylne has been exhibited alongside Street Art legends such as Shepard Fairey, D*Face, Banksy, Mr. Brainwash etc as well as YBA artists such as Damien Hirst & Gavin Turk. His first solo exhibition was at The Conningsby Gallery, London, in 2008 which was the first ever exhibition in Europe (possibly worldwide) showing photo realistic ballpoint artworks. To date he has had 4 public solo exhibitions. His last representing gallery was Rook & Raven Gallery where he had his first sell out solo show in 2012, but is currently working as an in-dependant, full time artist working with various galleries and art dealers. He has collaborated on two major commercial projects. The first with BIC, which produced an online video of him recreating Vermeer’s “The Girl With The Pearl Earring” in their ballpoint pen, which went viral generating 3/4 million views on YouTube (https://youtu.be/R6r9LhbQxvk). The second with Microsoft which Saw him use their digital pens to create drawings on their newly released tablet. The works were revealed to the press at The National Portrait Gallery in 2014 (https://youtu.be/bUA61HemlMU). At the end of last year (2019) Jame’s artwork of Boris Johnson as The Joker went viral appearing on news websites, celebrities’ social feeds, and even onto placards at anti Brexit protests. Around the same time he was asked to write the preface of a new book on Ballpoint Art where has was also interviewed and featured. In the past he has been interviewed by BBC London News at a group exhibition, and even made it into a 2 page piece, in an issue of GQ magazine, where the editor himself interviewed and covered his art.