The third exhibition of the Copyright Agency Partnerships Commission, James Barth: The Clumped Spirit at IMA
November 4, 2024
James Barth: The Clumped Spirit
In October, the Institute of Modern Art, Meanjin/Brisbane, opens the exhibition The Clumped Spirit, featuring new work by Meanjin/Brisbane artist James Barth (19 October–22 December 2024). The show is the third in the Copyright Agency Partnerships (CAP) series of annual $80,000 commissions for artists and delivered in partnership with leading Australian art galleries, to support mid-career and established Australian artists to develop and present major new bodies of work. Previous instalments were TextaQueen: Bollywouldn’t at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Gadigal/Sydney, in 2022, and James Nguyen: Open Glossary at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Naarm/Melbourne, 2023.
The Clumped Spirit is a joint project with UNSW Galleries, Gadigal/Sydney, and will be presented there in the new year (14 February–4 May 2025).
James Barth studied painting at Queensland College of Art, Meanjin/Brisbane, graduating in 2014. She trained as an oil painter and her works play on traditional genres of portraiture and still life but exceed them. Using 3D-modelling software, she creates stages, props, and avatars, which are then transmuted into screen-printed oil paintings and animated videos. In the paintings, screen-printed images are brushed to soften them, combining the virtual and the painterly.
Barth’s work has been attracting attention in recent times. She was included in Inner Sanctum, the Adelaide Biennale, at Art Gallery of South Australia, in 2023, and Embodied Knowledge: Contemporary Queensland Art, at Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane/Meanjin, in 2021. Her work is in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Queensland Art Gallery, Meanjin/Brisbane; Monash University Museum of Art, Naarm/Melbourne; and Griffith University Art Museum, Meanjin/Brisbane. She is represented by Milani Gallery, Meanjin/Brisbane.
Much of Barth’s work explores the themes of trans-self-representation and embodiment. It contends with her own experience as a trans-woman, navigating the constant pressures of visibility and vulnerability. Her works often depict domestic scenes, sometimes showing idealised imagery, sometimes showing bodies overwhelmed by decay. Mounds of organic material, such as fruit peel and leftover food, are left to sweat and decompose in her uncanny world, which is imbued with a sense of ennui and listlessness.
In addition to new paintings and video, The Clumped Spirit makes a dramatic move into sculpture. Barth’s 3D-printed sculptures are coated in zinc and aluminium, recalling petrified figures from Pompeii.
‘James Barth’s work is as compelling as it is confounding. We are thrilled to be working with her to realise this ambitious exhibition, which takes her work in bold new directions’, says IMA Director Robert Leonard. ‘We are grateful to the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund for their enlightened and generous support of contemporary Australian artists. Opportunities such as this allow artists to expand their vision and create career-defining works.’
Copyright Agency CEO Josephine Johnston says, ‘This commission comes at a pivotal point in James’s career, and we are delighted that our partnership through CAP provides the financial support for James to work uninhibited, as well as expert institutional support from the IMA and UNSW Galleries to produce an outstanding exhibition.’
The Clumped Spirit is supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund, IMA Commissioners Circle, and UNSW New Contemporaries. The IMA is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, the Australian Government through Creative Australia, and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian Federal, State, and Territory Governments.
For further inquiries—including for images and for interviews with the artist—please contact: Nicholas Aloisio-Shearer, 0410768191.
James Barth: The Clumped Spirit
19 October–22 December 2024
Institute of Modern Art
Ground Floor, Judith Wright Arts Centre
420 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley QLD 4006
Brisbane, Australia
Opening hours: Tuesday–Sunday 10am–5pm