Passers-by

GRANT BANBURY

Solitary by nature, Dunedin-based printmaker Bryan James draws daily, declaring it ‘absolutely crucial’. In a career spanning decades and including more than 30 solo shows across all New Zealand’s main centres, he has participated in international print biennales in Poland, Spain and the USA. A former political journalist, James, aged 75, remains a committed artist. But today, his work is almost out of sight, partly the result of not showing in dealer galleries since the mid-1990s. However, his eye-catching figurative woodcuts are represented in public collections throughout the country. Boldly coloured, blatant, intense, subtle, provocative, they display rare insights into the human condition and touch on the layered character of the everyday New Zealander—someone we might see, run into or, unknowingly, pass on the street.

Exploring with linocuts in his teens, James finally found his groove with woodcuts; and, with limited tools available, he fashioned his own. Finding the right paper proved problematic until he contacted a By the late 1970s, James had held solo shows in Adelaide, Melbourne and San Francisco.