There is no limit to the breadth of James King’s work. His subjects range from portraiture and interiors to landscape and the built environment. His surfaces include paper, canvas and even old books, using mostly oils as well as watercolours and ink. In 2016 he exhibited ’99 Miles from LA’, a series of monochrome photographs taken in the United States.
His art is humorous and eccentric, sometimes dark and unsettling. There is a feeling of unease that threads through much his work. His figures stare directly out at the viewer, meeting their gaze and inviting them into their world. His subject matter is mostly drawn from lost or discarded photographs from the mid-twentieth century, which, for him, have an unfiltered truthfulness hard to find in today’s media. King seeks to revive these forgotten stories.
King was Becker Minty’s first artist, beginning his association in 2007. He is familiar to most of Becker Minty’s clients, who continue to be surprised by his work. Born in Sydney, he now lives and works in Mittagong, NSW. He studied a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts and Archaeology at the University of Sydney and more recently completed a Master of Creative Arts at Wollongong University. It was in 2003 that King realised art was his true calling when he won the Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize. In 2011 he won the Goulburn Regional Art Prize. He has also been a finalist in the Premier's Plein Air Prize (2011), and a two time finalist in the John Copes Portrait Prize BDAS (2014, 2012), where he was awarded People’s Choice in 2012.