The Artist Alexander James Hamilton

Alexander James Hamilton's artistic practice is driven by a lifelong interest in field observation and scientific discovery, with a particular focus on exploring the liquid mechanics of water. His practice goes beyond the architectural confines of the art world and engages with the broader public sphere through interventions within natural landscapes and civic spaces, arts education, policy-making, and addressing issues of sustainability and ecocide.

For the past 40 years, Hamilton has been curating and enabling environmental, cultural, and community-based projects of merit, including yearly artist residencies and plastic-free design and recycling workshops. In 2021, he opened the first carbon-neutral plastic and aluminium recycling studio in the Maldives, called 'Makers Place'. Hamilton plans to open two additional strategically placed sites to help combat the plastic pollution being experienced by remote island communities.


SOLO EXHIBITIONS (selected)

1985 - 'Under the surface' documenting tourism's effect offshore. National Pantheon, Dominican Republic.
1986 - 'Intervened' 20 underwater installation works mapping Caribbean endangered reef hotspots.
1995 - 'Dreams walking past' guerrilla exhibition installation Fifth Avenue, New York
1996 - 'Defluxio' deviation plinths installed in Los Angeles floodwater causeway, USA.1999 - 'Liquid Mechanics' 18 installation works mapping endangered chalk streams in Kent, UK.
2000 - 'Flesh & Foliage' Loft 56, New York.
2002 - 'The Colour Candy' G & A Gallery, Sydney.
2003 - 'No Logo' Maison Bastille, Paris.
2004 - 'Shift' 109 Building, Shibuya, Tokyo.
2006 - 'Flight' The Boiler House, Shanghai.
2010 - 'Taxi' Ann330 Gallery, Los Angeles.
2010 - 'Tokyo Green' Conningsby Gallery, London.
2012 - 'A beautiful announcement of death' Pertwee Anderson & Gold Gallery, London.
2014 - 'Vanitas' Cafe Royal, London.
2014 - 'Rastvorennaya Pechal' Triumph Gallery, Moscow.
2015 - 'Oil + Water' IX sculptural works created & installed in the forests of Siberia.
2016 - 'The illusion of oil' Ekaterinburg, Russia.
2017 - 'Death of the dream' Dellasposa Gallery, 93 Piccadilly, London.
2020 - 'Renaciendo' site-specific installation, derelict Baroque Carmelite convent dating from 1688.
2025 - 'Goya reborn in water' exhibition in the 10th century Castillo de La Piedra Bermeja, Brihuega.

The artist creates meticulously crafted sculptural scenes; using studio made props, breeding butterflies, growing period specific flowers, and handmade garments for his personages.
His installations are then encased within a vast underwater landscape solely to be documented on a single 8x10 inch analogue camera plate. These photographic plates are the only existing record of a far bigger conceptual 'behing the scenes' process, which happens during the artist's studio practice. In his work, the artist attempts to relive the tragic baroque beauty of his installations and aims to preserve the memory, from ever being able to fade away.
The introduction of water is both symbolic and functional, as water is used as a device through which the artist achieves the effect of painterly execution of his pieces. His artworks are literally the products of the interaction of brushes and the artists bare hands on the surface tension of
the water, and the subjects are, in fact, painted in light.
The artist applies analogue camera equipment without any post production, his lifelong dedication to in-camera purity is linked to painstaking preparatory work.