'Outside' screening at MIS in São Paulo

'Outside' will be showing as part of the NOVA art event in São Paulo, Brazil at MIS on Saturday July 31st at 18.30

www.jroper.co.uk/film/outside

www.rojo-nova.com

MIS Museu da Imagem e do Som
Avenida Europa, 158, Jardim Europa
01449-000 São Paulo, SP Brasil.
+55 11 2117 4777
www.mis-sp.org.br

Lamono magazine #65

Interview and work featured in Lamono #65

www.lamonodigital.net

Hi-Fructose Magazine Vol.16.

Interview and work featured in Hi-Fructose Vol.16 - Out in July

www.hifructose.com

Art on the Edge: The New Contemporary

Art on the Edge: The New Contemporary (group show)

Wednesday, July 7th – Tuesday, July 27th

Vered gallery
68 Park Place
East Hampton
NY 11937-2407

www.veredart.com

New work

New paintings and drawings on my website, including seven new Rapture pieces.

'Paroxysm' (solo show) at ®artspace Barcelona

Paroxysm (solo show): 18.05.2010 - 17.06.2010

®artspace Barcelona
Carrer Girona 61 Local 02,
Eixample. 08009 Barcelona. Spain.
+34 934 673 598

www.rojo-magazine.com/bcn


"By constructing abstract bodies formed from multiple elements these works mimic the complex bodily structures found within nature. Biological machines such as the human body process and retain energy and any processes placed under restraint will result in an intensification of it's eventual release. The work attempts to portray this intermediate state as control gives way to chaotic abandon and a transition occurs from one state to the next. Roper is heavily influenced by the excessive and sensuously rich imagery of Baroque art and it's depiction of the unfettering of religious restraint. Instead of the gentle ushering of the spirit towards the heavens his paintings spit, ejaculate, regurgitate and projectile vomit the spirit out, rejecting it's bodily form in a fit of maniacal hysterics, a nonsensical reflexive outburst like the spasmodic speaking in tongues of those 'slain in the spirit'."

Fovea centralis

Searching for images across the Internet is an integral part of my work. As a result I have seen thousands upon thousands of images. I will be using my new blog 'Fovea centralis' to share with you the library of images I have collected over the years.

Fovea centralis

New Hypermass prints

'Inhibitor' and 'Standpoint Conversion' are now available as prints at: www.inprnt.com

Gallery-quality giclée prints on 100% cotton rag archival paper, printed with archival inks. Limited edition of 100.

Inhibitor

Standpoint Conversion

'Outside'

In February 2009 'Outside' was shot, a short film I had co-written and worked on the production design for, and after a long period of post-production is now complete. The short will recieve it's first screening at Cannes Film Festival 2010. I will update soon about further screenings and website launch.

Computer Arts: issue 174

www.computerarts.co.uk

Caged Bird Sings

Caged Bird Sings (group show): 15th - 20th April

Crypt Gallery
Saint Pancras Church
Euston Road
London
NW1 2BA

Bare/not Projects present Caged Bird Sings, an exhibition in the atmospheric Crypt Gallery in St Pancras.

We have fifteen artists participating: James Roper, Klarita Pandolfi, Dorothy Yoon, Jo Young, Paul Dawes, Daisy McMullan, Luigi Menichelli, Taciana Coimbra, Antonio Pagani, Tom Lovelace, Reme Campos, Brixton Punk (Andrew Graves Johnston), Stella O and Kika Nicolela

Our opening night is on 15th April, there will be free drinks and a DJ in the Crypt.

For more info visit: barenot.wordpress.com

www.cryptgallery.org.uk

'Mirabilia' at ®artspace Milano

Mirabilia (group show): 11th March - 11th April 2010

®artspace Milano
Via Tortona 17-19. 20144
Milano, Italy
+ 39 02 894 230 87

www.rojo-milano.com

"To celebrate its second anniversary, ROJO®artspace Milano presents a group exhibition emblematically titled "Mirabilia". It brings togheter over 50 artists for a transversal overview of international contemporary creativity through painting, graphics, illustration, photography, sculpture, video, installation and visual poetry."

Joshua Liner Gallery @ SCOPE Miami

SCOPE Miami

Soho Studios Miami
2136 NW 1st Avenue
(Entrance at NW 21st Street)
MIAMI, FL 33127

Thursday | Dec 3 | 11am-7pm
Friday | Dec 4 | 11am-7pm
Saturday | Dec 5 | 11am-7pm
Sunday | Dec 6 | 11am-6pm

Admission

FirstView $100 | Free for VIP cardholders
General $20 | Free for VIP cardholders
Student $10

'Hypermass' at ®artspace Milano

Hypermass (solo show): 19 November 09 - 20 December 09

®artspace Milano
Via Tortona 17-19. 20144
Milano, Italy
+ 39 02 894 230 87

www.rojo-milano.com

"James Roper's work explores a variety of subjects from the heightened realities depicted in Baroque art and modern media to the restraint and release of energy found within complex structures such as the human body. In his first solo show in Italy, James Roper presents a new series Hypermass, where the compositions are constructed using images specifically appropriated from japanese animation (anime). Forms such as hair or body structure are highly caricatured in anime resulting in a visual style that can be read adversely as either an intensification of concrete reality or an evasion into escapist fantasy."

Natural Wonders

"LeBasse Projects warmly welcomes Jeremy Asher Lynch, James Roper and Kevin E. Taylor to the gallery for a three person show of new work. Though very different in their approach all three artists bring us their outlook on the changing environment and world around us.

UK based James Roper's work explores a variety of subjects including the restraint and release of energy found within complex structures such as the human body. Florida native Jeremy Asher Lynch's mixed media works often juxtapose both illustrative and abstract techniques while creating beautiful paintings which often carry a darker subtext. Kevin E. Taylor comes to the gallery from San Francisco where he has been working on a series of paintings that force the viewer to re-examine the relationship between man and the natural world around him."

'Natural Wonders'
Jeremy Lynch, Kevin E. Taylor, James Roper
Friday, November 13th, 7-10pm

www.lebasseprojects.com

For more info or preview, please contact the gallery at:
contact@lebasseprojects.com or 310.558.0200

Quinquennium Exhibitum

I will be showing new work in Nucleus gallery's 5 Year Anniversary Exhibition. November 7 - 30, 2009
Opening Reception: Nov 7, 7:00pm - 11:00pm

Nucleus
210, East Main Street
Alhambra, CA 91801
www.gallerynucleus.com

www.gallerynucleus.com/artist/james_roper

Beyond Eden Art Fair

LeBasse Projects will be showing four new pieces in the Rapture series at the Beyond Eden Art Fair, a multi-gallery event celebrating the new contemporary art scene in Los Angeles. Beyond Eden will showcase the works of over 15 galleries and will be held inside the beautiful confines of the historic Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery during the weekend of October 9th, 10th and 11th, with an opening night celebration planned for Saturday, October 10th.

www.beyondedenartfair.com

www.lebasseprojects.com

Previous Rapture pieces are still available via www.rojo-magazine.com/artstore

The Book of Inspiration

The Book of Inspiration is a new luxury volume from the makers of Computer Arts magazine, featuring 192 pages of the world’s very best digital art, design and illustration.

It comes with a die-cut, foil-blocked and embossed cover, and features works from the likes of James Jean, Non-Format, Neville Brody, Airside, Hort, Vault49, Serial Cut, Jasper Goodall, Deanne Cheuk and many more.

As well as a huge showcase section of up and coming talent, it features interviews with the likes of Justin Maller, Trevor Jackson, Marian Bantjes and Jonathan Barnbrook – all displayed on in sumptuous art stock paper.

It’s on sale now for £14.99, and available at WH Smiths, Borders, Barnes & Noble and other good stockists.

Joshua Liner group show

I will be showing work at the Joshua Liner Gallery in the Summer Group Exhibition, August 15th - September 5th.

Private view: Saturday 15th August, 6-9pm

Joshua Liner Gallery
548 W. 28th Street
3rd Floor
New York NY 10001
212.244.7415
joshualinergallery.com

Old news

This happened a while before I set this blog up but I thought it deserved a belated post. Kanye West wearing my Fallout t-shirt whilst in London. It also meant I'd been 'shown' along side (or behind) one of my favourite artists Takashi Murakami (that bling round his neck was designed by him)

All three t-shirts Fallout, Reflex and Saccade are available at the Tank Theory website

Culver City Artwalk

I will have work on show at LeBasse Projects for the Culver City Artwalk.

Saturday, May 30th 2009, Noon - 8pm.

www.lebasseprojects.com

PRESS RELEASE

Curbs and Stoops interview

Click hear see

Autosarcophagy (The host within the host)

acrylic on canvas - 120cm x 100cm - 2009

Interview in I.T Post magazine

www.ithk.com

Hi-Fructose interview

www.hifructose.com

Interview by Nathan Spoor

OCHO group show

In the first collaboration project between nine member galleries of the ®artspace global network more than 140 artists will be showing in nine group shows in nine different cities around the world: ®Barcelona, ®Milano, POP Sao Paulo, ClubBlast Rosario, Concrete Hermit London, We Love Asbaek Copenhagen, Inoperable Vienna, Carmichael Los Angeles & Subaquatica Madrid.

ROJO® is also publishing a limited edition ROJO® issue featuring works by a selection of artists showing in the global group show.

I will be showing pieces from the Rapture series in the following shows:
®artspace Barcelona: 18 March 2009 - 30 April 2009
®artspace Milano: 12 March 2009 - 15 April 2009

The limited edition ROJO®ocho book is available on the ROJO® shop
The Rapture pieces on show are available to purchase on the ROJO® artstore

'Outside'

Co-written by myself, Robert Bailey and Tom Wightman 'Outside' won funding through Northwest Vision and Media's Virgin Shorts 2008 competition. 'Outside' was shot over four consecutive days in locations around the North of England. Directed by Wightman with production design by myself and Bailey the short is currently in post-production....and yes, that symbol is the films title.

images courtesy of Auto-9

My art reviewed in Art Review

Part of the London art reviews marathon '4 critics, 7 days, 100 reviews'

www.artreview.com

Construct

Construct is an accumulation of polyhedra forms I made from modular origami over a three year period.
Also known as 'Bucky balls' (after the American architect Buckminster Fuller who was known for his use of geodesic domes) they are built out of a number of 'Pentagon-Hexagon Zig Zag (PHiZZ) units' each made from a square piece of coloured paper.
They have the same geometric form as a Fullerene (carbon based molecules, also named after Fuller) which are used to build structures in Nanotechnology.

More images of the installation on my website

London Art Fair 2009

FORSTER will have two new drawings at the London Art Fair 2009 - Business Design Centre, Islington - 14th - 18th January 2009. Stand G45 on the balcony level (at the rear, on the right)

Interview in Belio magazine

BELIO:28 Pop issue


www.beliomagazine.com/store

'Into the Fold' at Forster

Into the Fold (solo show): 7 November - 20 December 2008

FORSTER
1 Chapel Place
Rivington Street
London
EC2A 3DQ

+44 (0)20 7739 7572
info@forstergallery.com

press release:

FORSTER is proud to present James Roper’s forthcoming solo show, ‘Into The Fold’, a much anticipated collection of stunning new paintings and a site-specific installation in his first exhibition at the gallery.

Roper draws upon his own library of photographs as a foundation for his striking paintings, whilst also obsessively trawling and utilizing a plethora of visual material found on the internet, including fashion, animation, and advertising. Each of the artist’s paintings result from his re-digestion and translation of these collected pictorial tools, with his superior use of paint.

‘I predominantly choose images and try to create forms which I feel register a visual 'peak shift', a term given to the phenomena of 'neurological attraction' that appears in both humans and animals to an extreme characterization of an object.’ – James Roper

This ‘peakshift’ is core to the artists work. Present within advertising, Hollywood blockbusters, haute couture fashion, as well as in extreme forms of body exaggeration such as bodybuilding and pornography, the artist extracts the key element of the image, that causes such heightened visual excitement. By isolating ‘peakshift’ images and merging them through collage, the intention is to intensify the visual triggers so that they form a sort of neurological hyperactivity.

In addition to contemporary source material, James Roper’s work has been heavily influenced by Catholic imagery from the Baroque period and he specifically sites Bernini - the exaggerated depiction of texture, flesh and folds in robes and cloth as key source of inspiration.

"I see the fold of things through the dust they stir up, and whose folds I cast aside. I do not see into God, but I do see into the folds." Deleuze – The Fold

The excessive use of pleats in the artists work surround the viewer as if they are housed within this lavish world of colour and texture. They themselves are engulfed by these surfaces and become part of the folds that are beyond the canvas but are indeed hinted at. The sublime titles of the paintings point towards an otherworldly suggestion of infinity or the constant shift of perception and understanding of space, time and quantity. We have to ask what is it that we are looking for – an answer, solution, reason or cause? Surely the best option is to enjoy this visual feast laid before us, and submerge ourselves into the fold?

Since completing his BA (Hons) in Fine Art at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2005 James Roper has exhibited widely across the UK and has been featured in such publications as Belio Magazine and Dazed and Confused. Roper is currently art directing a short film he co-wrote that won funding from NorthWest Vision and Media as part of their Virgin Shorts 2008.
For further information and images please contact Suzanne at the gallery on +44 (0)20 7739 7572 or Suzanne@forstergallery.com