James De Villiers

Born 10 March 1954

Pietermaritzburg, Kwazulu-Natal.

Currently lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.



My work is concerned with change, decay, destruction and the passage of time. It also specifically deals with the vulnerability and recovery of nature. It is only over the last eight years that I have been able to paint full time, although I have been an active artist in many media since the age of nineteen as well as various periods of operating fringe galleries and facilitating art, poetry and experimental music events.

I work in both abstract and realist modes, moving from one mode to the other keeps my attention focused and my vision fresh. Each mode or style of art-making enables me to express myself in the most appropriate way the artistic vision demands. However, over the past ten years, I have been concentrating mainly on abstraction using a variety of media including acrylics, oils, pastels, charcoal and screenprinting. From an early age I have been greatly influenced by Nature, both from a scientific and an aesthetic view, and have been aware of the destructive influence of human activity on the environment. One of my early art influences was the visionary artist and poet William Blake.

The inf...

I have artworks in many private and corporate collections, both in South Africa and abroad.

Most of my art is exhibited and sold online.

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2022 Group Exhibition StateoftheART Gallery, Cape Town

2021 July-Aug: Affordable Art Fair 2021 at EDG2020 Gallery, Kyalami, Johannesburg.
Awarded second prize for Vortex, a multimedia screenprinted work on paper.

2020 Exhibited and sold artworks online during the pandemic. Completed a large painting commission.

2019 Exhibited paintings at The Pencil Art Foundation in Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal

2018 July: Group show at White River Gallery, Mpumumlanga, titled "Na die Maal" (After the Meal)

2018 May Paintings exhibited at StateoftheART Gallery, Cape Town

2018 April onwards. Group exhibtion at The Art of Silver Gallery in Cullinan

2017 11 Feb-12 March "Untitled" group exhibition at the Moor Gallery Franschhoek

2017 Jan 7- Feb 5 "Genre" group exhibition at the Moor Gallery Franschhoek

2016 "Ephemeral Pleasures" group exhibition at the Moor Gallery Franschhoek

2016 August- Oct: "Muse Montage" group exhibition at Eclectica Design and Art

2016 July: A pastel painting titled "After the Battle" accepted by the Delville Wood Memorial Museum in the Somme, France

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