James Webb is an interdisciplinary artist, known for his site-specific interventions and installations. His practice often involves sound, found objects, and text, invoking references to literature, cinema, and the minimalist traditions. By shifting objects, techniques, and forms beyond their original contexts and introducing them to different environments, Webb creates new spaces of tension. These spaces bind Webb’s academic background in religion, theatre, and advertising, offering poetic inquiries into the economies of belief and dynamics of communication in our contemporary world.

Webb has had solo exhibitions at, amongst others, the Art Institute of Chicago, USA, 2018; SPACES, Cleveland, USA, 2018; Norrtälje Konsthall, Norrtälje, Sweden, 2018; Galerie Imane Farès, Paris, France, 2016 and 2019; Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, United Kingdom, 2016; Hordaland Kunstsenter, Bergen, Norway, 2015; blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa, 2014, 2016, and 2020; CentroCentro, Madrid, Spain, 2013; Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2012; and mac, Birmingham, United Kingdom, 2010.

Major group exhibitions include the inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale (2023), the 16th Lyon Biennale (2022), Borås Art Biennial in Sweden (2021), 14th Curitiba International Biennial of Contemporary Art (2019), 13th Biennial of Dakar (2018), 4th Prospect Triennial of New Orleans (2017), Documenta 14 (2017), 13th Biennial of Sharjah (2017), 12th Bienal de la Habana (2015), 55th Biennale di Venezia (2013), 3rd Marrakech Biennale (2009), Melbourne International Arts Festival (2009), and the 8th Biennale d’Art Contemporain de Lyon (2007). Other notable group shows include those at spaces such as Museum Tinguely, Basel; Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania; A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town; Wanås Konst and Historiska, Sweden; MAXXI Roma, Italy; Darat al Funun, Jordan; Théâtre Graslin, France; and the Tate Modern, London. 

Webb’s work has been acquired for numerous local and international public and private collections, and his projects have been the subject of the two monographs, “. . .” (blank projects, 2020), and “Xenagogue” (Hordaland Kunstsenter, 2015).

For more information on the artist, and audio/video samples, visit http://theotherjameswebb.tumblr.com



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curriculum vitae


1975   Born in Kimberley, South Africa



education


1999  Diploma (Copywriting) The Red & Yellow School, Cape Town, South Africa

1996  B.A. (Drama & Comparative Religion) University of Cape Town, South Africa



selected solo exhibitions


2020 What Fresh Hell Is This, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2019 Choose the Universe, Galerie Imane Farès, Paris, France

2019 Three dreams of the sinking world, POOL, Johannesburg, South Africa

2018 It’s not what it looks like, SPACES, Cleveland, USA

2018 Prayer (Chicago), Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA

2018 Supernature, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Yorkshire, UK

2018 The dreamer in me meets the dreamer in you, Norrtälje Konsthall, Norrtälje, Sweden

2016 Hope is a good swimmer, Galerie Imane Fares, Paris, France

2016 We Listen for the Future, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Yorkshire, UK

2016 Ecstatic Interference, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2015 Xenagogue, Hordaland Kunstsenter, Bergen, Norway

2015 Nous نحن , with Ninar Esber, Galerie Imane Farès, Paris, France

2014 The Two Insomnias, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2013 Audiopolis, Centro Centro, Madrid, Spain

2012 MMXII, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2010 Aleph, Goethe On Main, Johannesburg, South Africa

2010 Terms Of Surrender, ABSA Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2010 Untitled States, MAC, Birmingham, UK

2010 Prayer, Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham, UK

2010 JWAKZNSA, KZNSA, Durban, South Africa

2010 One day, all of this will be yours, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2008 Prayer, Huddersfield Art Gallery, West Yorkshire, UK

2007 Beau Diable, Gallery In The Round, Grahamstown, South Africa

2006 Untitled, Blank Projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2002 Phonosynthesizer, US Art Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa



selected group exhibitions

2023    You to Me, Me to You, A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa

2023    A Dobradiça - Encontros contemporâneo, A Dobradiça Biennale, Mação, Portugal

2023    Au hasard des oiseau, Biennale Internationale Saint-Paul de Vence, Saint-Paul de Vence, France

2023    Vävda Rum, Riksförbundet Sveriges Konstföreningar, Augmented Reality throughout Sweden

2023   lO, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2023 The Sound, 2nd Monheim Triennale, Monheim am Rhein, Germany [upcoming]

2023 À bruit secret: Hearing in Art, Museum Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland 

2023 MONA FOMA festival, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania

2023 Awwal Bayt (First House), Islamic Arts Biennale, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

2022 The Future is Behind Us, A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa

2022 manifesto of fragility, 16th Biennale de Lyon, France

2021 Deep listening for longing, Borås Art Biennial, Borås, Sweden 

2021 The Normal, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland

2020 Audiosphere: Sound Experimentation 1980-2020, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain

2020 Helicotrema, La Fratellanza 1874, Modena, Italy

2020 freq_wave (Seven Seas), Curated by Carl Michael von Hausswolff and Alonso Vázquez, TBA21-Academy, Austria [online]

2020 Konst i Ån, Norrtälje, Sweden

2019 Ngoma: Art and Cosmology, JAG, Johannesburg, South Africa

2019 the head the hand, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2019 Rennie at the WAG, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Canada

2019 Open Borders, 14th Curitiba International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Curitiba, Brazil

2019 Listening Room, Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town, South Africa

2018 Hacer Noche, Centro Cultural San Pablo, Oaxaca de Juarez, Mexico

2018 Radiophonic Spaces, Museum Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland

2018 Truth is black, write over it with a mirage’s light, Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan

2018 Radiophonic Spaces, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany

2018 Ways of Seeing, New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

2018 African Metropolis: An Imaginary City, MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome, Italy

2018 blank, Galerie Guido W. Baudach, Berlin, Germany

2018 Gegen die Strömung: Reise ins Ungewisse, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany

2018 More for less, A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa

2018 The Red Hour, 13th Biennial of Dakar, Senegal

2018 Common Ground, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, UK

2017 17, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2017 The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp, Prospect New Orleans 4, New Orleans, USA

2017 Ways of Seeing, Villa Empain Fondation Boghossia, Brussels, Belgium

2017 Mixed Signals, Helicotrema 6, Teatro di Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy

2017 Utocorpis, Silenco, Paris, France

2017 Cinéphémere for LOOP Barcelona, Grand Palais, Paris, France

2017 Every Time An Ear Di Soun, documenta 14 radio

2017 Tous, des sang mêles, MAC VAL, Paris, France

2017 Home is so fucking complicated, Galerie Nathalie Halgand for the Curated by_ series, Vienna, Austria

2017 Picasso et la maternité, Musée Crozatier, Le Puy-en-Velay, France

2017 Image Drain, Tallin Art Hall, Tallin, Estonia

2017 Afrique Capitales, La Villette, Paris, France

2017 Becoming an Apricot, an apple, a crow, a tree, a cockroach, a glacier, a plant, a mushroom, a shell, a bird, algae for Survival Kit 9, Former Faculty of Biology of the University of Latvia, Riga

2017 Tamawuj, Sharjah Biennial 13, United Arab Emirates

2016 Silencio, in collaboration with Raphaëlle Delaunay, Paris, France

2016 Sonic Somatic, Firenze, Italy

2016 Nothing is Impossible, Monte Vista Projects, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sante Fe, USA

2016 Helicotrema, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy

2016 History Unfolds, Historiska Museet, Stockholm, Sweden

2016 Malmös Leende, Malmö, Sweden

2016 Sèvres Outdoors 2016, Sèvres Cité de la Céramique, Paris, France

2016 Le Voyage à Nantes Festival, Théâtre Graslin and Jardin de la Psalette, Nantes, France

2016 A Place In Time, Nirox Foundation, South Africa

2016 Alive in the Dead Sea (1995-2015), The Khalid Shoman Foundation Darat Al Funun, Amman, Jordan

2016 The 55-Minute Hour, Trubok Factory, Cape Town, South Africa

2015 Libertas, 7th Bienal de Jafre, Girona, Spain

2015 Handle with care, Ostrale 15, Dresden, Germany

2015 Barrier, Wanås Konst Sculpture Park, Sweden

2015 Between the idea and experience, Bienal de la Habana, Havana, Cuba

2014 Frestas, Trienal of Sorobaba, Sesc, Sao Paulo, Brazil

2014 Helicotrema, Recorded Audio Festival, Viafarini DOCVA, Milan, Italy

2014 No Fixed Abode, The New Church Museum, Cape Town, South Africa

2014 Fittja Pavilion at the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale, Serra dei Giardini, Venice, Italy

2014 Dirty Ear Forum: Sound, Multiplicity and Radical Listening, Galleri 3,14 and Rom8, Bergen, Norway

2014 next thing you know, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2013 This is the thing, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2013 blank projects in Johannesburg, Ithuba Arts Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2013 Imaginary Fact, South African Pavillion, 55th La Biennale di Venezia, Italy

2013 Between The Lines, Former Tagesspiegel Building, Berlin, Germany

2013 No Limit 2, Galerie Imane Fares, Paris, France

2012 GIPCA Live Art Festival, City Hall, Cape Town, South Africa

2012 When Form Becomes Attitude, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2012 Experience Pommery 10, Domaine Pommery, Reims, France

2012 Making Way, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, South Africa

2012 Fierce Festival, various venues, Birmingham, UK

2012 In Other Words: the black market of translation, NGBK, Berlin, Germany

2011 Experience Pommery 9, Domaine Pommery, Reims, France

2011 Neither Man, Nor Stone, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2010 Sentences On The Banks and other activities, Darat Al-Funun, Amman, Jordan

2010 Reflex / Reflexión, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2010 Article Biennale, various venues, Stavanger, Norway

2010 My World Images, various venues: Copenhagen, Denmark, Istanbul, Athens, Marrakech, Palermo, Catania, Riso Museo d’Arte Contemporanea della Sicilia, Palermo

2010 In Other Words, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2010 Twenty, Nirox Foundation, Johannesburg, South Africa

2010 Contemporary Artists From South Africa, Stiftelsen 314, Bergen, Norway

2010 Ampersand, Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, Germany

2010 No Soul For Sale, L’appartement 22 / Tate Modern, London, UK

2010 1910 – 2010,  Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2010 Printemps des Poètes, Salon de lecture, Musée du quai Branly, Paris, France

2009 Happy House, Kunst im Tunnel, Düsseldorf, Germany

2009 3rd Arts In Marrakech Biennale, Museum of Marrakech, Morocco

2009 L’effacement des traces, Musée d’histoire contemporaine, Paris, France

2009 Melbourne International Arts Festival, Melbourne, Australia

2009 Open Frame, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia

2009 CAPE 09, Cape Town’s 2nd biennale of contemporary African culture, Cape Town, South Africa

2009 This Is Now 2, L’Appartment 22, Rabat, Morocco

2008 Delusions Of Grandeur, Unit B Gallery, San Antonio, Texas, USA

2008 Jozi & The (M)Other City, Michaelis Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2008 Home Bound, Stiftung Kunst:Raum Sylt Quelle, Sylt, Germany

2008 za, Giovane arte dal Sud Africa, Palazzo delle Papesse Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Italy

2008 Light Show, Bank Gallery, Durban, South Africa

2007 Sakra!, St. Andrä, Graz, Austria

2007 9th Biennale d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, France

2007 3C, Critic’s Choice Exhibition, Association for Visual Arts, Cape Town, South Africa

2007 (In)visible Sounds (with Brandon LaBelle), Netherlands Media Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2007 Afterlife, Michael Stevenson Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa

2006 MTN New Contemporaries, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2005 Aqua Art Sound Broadcast, Aqua Art Hotel, Miami, USA

2005 Gallery Puta, Cape Town, South Africa

2005 Incidental Amplifications, Various venues, Melbourne, Australia

2005 CCA Kitakyushu Open Studio, Kitakyushu, Japan

2004 Typhoon, Maeda Gallery, Kitakyushu, Japan

2004 The Brett Kebble Art Awards (with Matthew Kalil), CTICC, Cape Town, South Africa

2004 Listening to The World Today, BBC Radio 4

2004 A Decade Of Democracy, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2004 Zèppelin 2004-Festival de Arte Sonor, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Spain

2003 Mooimark, Mooimark House, Johannesburg, South Africa

2003 YDEsire, The Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town, South Africa

2002 The Long Night Of Radio Art, Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, Austria



selected installations


There’s No Place Called Home (Hökarängen), Konsthall C, Stockholm, Sweden

Nothing here does not hear you, National Arts Festival, Makhanda, South Africa

The dreamer in me meets the dreamer in you, Norrtälje Konsthall, Norrtälje, Sweden

Let Me Lose Myself, Skogskyrkogården, Stockholm, Sweden

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan

There’s No Place Called Home (Amman), Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan

There’s No Place Called Home (Pommery), Vranken-Pommery Monopole, Reims, France

There’s No Place Called Home (La Villa Demoiselle), Vranken-Pommery Monopole, Reims, France

Untitled, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

Siren, Main Street Life, Johannesburg, South Africa



selected commissions


2021 As Yet Untitled, sound installation, Norval Foundation Sculpture Garden, Cape Town, South Africa

2014 The Shadow Of The Hummingbird, written and directed by Athol Fugard, Fugard Theatre, Cape Town, South Africa

2013 The Conversation, time capsule to be opened on 4 August 2103, Egebjerg, Denmark

2013 Die Laaste Karretjiegraf, written and directed by Athol Fugard and Riana Steyn, Fugard Theatre, Cape Town, South Africa

2011 Telephone Voice, Répondeur, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France

2011 The Bird Watchers, written and directed by Athol Fugard, Fugard Theatre, Cape Town, South Africa



residencies


2018 SWAP, SPACES, Cleveland, United States of America

2017 Fountainhead Residency, Miami

2017 Atelier Mondial, Basel, Switzerland

2016 IASPIS, Stockholm, Sweden

2011 Nirox Foundation, Johannesburg, South Africa

2011 Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan

2010 USF, Bergen, Norway

2009 Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France

2009 KIT – Kunst im Tunnel, Düsseldorf, Germany

2009 Visby International Composers’ Centre, Götland, Sweden

2008 MediaLab Prado, Madrid, Spain

2006 MALAB, Amazonas, Brazil

2004/5 CCA Kitakyushu, Yahata, Japan



prizes + grants


2016 IASPIS grant, Sweden

2013 Turquoise Harmony Institute Art Award, South Africa

2009 Art Moves Africa Travel Grant

2008 ABSA L’Atelier Award

2006 Nominated for the MTN New Contemporaries Award

2006 ABSA L’Atelier Top 5 finalist

2002 ABSA L’Atelier Top 5 finalist



selected public collections


The Art Institute of Chicago, United States of America

MAC VAL Musée d’Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne, Paris, France

MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome, Italy

FRAC Champagne Ardenne, Reims, France

Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

The Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa

The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld, Germany



selected private collections and foundations


Darat al Funun, Khalid Shoman Foundation

A4 Arts Foundation, South Africa

Jordan Vranken Pommery Monopole

Rennie Museum, Vancouver, Canada

The Life Collection, Johannesburg, South Africa

Nirox Foundation, Johannesburg, South Africa

Ellerman House, Cape Town, South Africa

Gordon Schachat Art Collection, Johannesburg, South Africa

UNISA Art Gallery & Collection, Pretoria, South Africa