James Bland
born 1979
I'm an artist, a figurative oil painter, a teacher, and a writer. I grew up in Grimsby and the Scottish Highlands. I come from a working-class family. My early interests were art, writing, music, nature, and computer coding. My first publication credit is a video game written in 1993 and published in Amstrad Action magazine.
Moving to Canterbury in 1999, I went on to receive a first class degree in Fine Art, followed by a masters degree in the same subject from Christchurch University, where I studied with Irish artist John Long. Between 2006 and 2007 I lived in Padua, where I taught English and studied Italian art, in particular the painters and sculptors of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
Since 2007, I have lived and worked in Canterbury. In 2015 I was elected a member of the New English Art Club, and in 2018 I joined the Contemporary British Portrait Painters group.
In 2017 my work featured in Honoring the Legacy of David Park at Santa Clara University, California, alongside David Park and other Bay Area painters. In 2018 and 2019 I was part of Disrupted Realism, an international survey of contemporary realism by US curator John Seed that led to exhibitions and a successful series of art books. In 2026, my work features alongside that of 20th-Century greats Euan Uglow and William Coldstream in Looking for Appearance, a group exhibition curated by Mark Dunford and Tim Craven at the Thelma Hulbert Gallery in Devon.
My first book, Portrait Painting: Abstraction, Storytelling and Mood will be published by Crowood Press in May 2026.
.jpeg)
Awards
2023 Val Harris Prize
New English Art Club annual exhibition
2023 joint winner, Critics' Choice Prize
New English Art Club annual exhibition
New English Art Club annual exhibition
2013 shortlisted for Ruth Borchard Prize
King's Place, London
2013 1st Prize winner, Winsor & Newton Oil Painters Award
Royal Institute of Oil Painters annual exhibition
2007 Janet Konstam Travel Award
2007 Artist Residency, Centro Verrocchio, Tuscany
Solo Exhibitions
2025 A Dreaded Sunny Day, Lilford Gallery, Canterbury, UK
2024 Storytelling, Tregony Contemporary, UK
2023 New Light, Lilford Gallery, Canterbury, UK
2022 Awakenings, Tregony Gallery, Cornwall, UK
2019 Altogether Elsewhere, Gallery 286, London, UK
2019 Lilford Gallery, Canterbury, UK
2017 Illuminations, Lilford Gallery, Canterbury, UK
2017 An Artist in a State of Flux, Natsoulas Gallery, CA, USA
2015 Letting Light In, Lilford Gallery, Canterbury, UK
Bibliography
2026 Bland, J. Portrait Painting: Abstraction, Storytelling and Mood, Crowood, ISBN 9780718846618
2023 Bland, J. How I Make It Work, Artists & Illustrators, May 2023, p.22
2020 Petit Lisy, B. L'Enfance De L'Art (interview with James Bland), Pratique Des Arts no.155, January 2021, pp.36-41
2019 Seed, J. Disrupted Realism, Schiffer ISBN 0764358012
2019 Pill, S. James Bland (interview), Artists & Illustrators, August 2019
2018 Podlesnik, J. Observational Drawing, Tempe Digital ISBN-13 9780986163753
2017 Morton, W. etc. Poets Artists #86, The New Nude
2015 Vann, P. James Bland in the Ruth Borchard Collection, 01 January 2016
2014 Bland, J. Introduction to Villaggi, catalogue for exhibition of work by Ilaria Rosselli del Turco
2014 Eaton, T. Ones to Watch, Artists & Illustrators, April 2014
1993 Bland, J. 'Pilltris', Type-Ins, Amstrad Action #92
Selected Group Exhibitions
2026 Looking for Appearance, Thelma Hulbert, Honiton, UK
2025 Beyond the Prize, Mall Galleries, SW17, London
2024, 2025 Hampstead Art Society, Duke Street St James's, London
2022 - 2025 Contemporary British Portrait Painters, The Dept Store, Brixton, London
2023 ING Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London
2013 - 2025 New English Art Club, Mall Galleries, London
2019 - 2026 Assemble etc., Tregony Gallery, London and Cornwall
2022 Contrast & Connection with Ashraf Hanna, Contemporary Six, Manchester
2021 One: Single Object Still Life etc., 155a Gallery, London
2015 - International Figurative Biennale etc., John Natsoulas Gallery, California
2019, 2018 Disrupted Realism, Stanek Gallery, USA
2017 - 2018 Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Mall Galleries, London
2017 Honouring the Legacy of David Park, Santa Clara University, California
2017, 2014 Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize, Mall Galleries, London
2015 ING Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London, invited artist
2014, 2013 Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Mall Galleries, London
2014 Threadneedle Prize, Mall Galleries, London
2013 Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize, King's Place, London
Academic Qualifications
2004 MA Fine Art, Canterbury Christchurch University
2002 BA (Hons) 1st Class in Fine Art, Canterbury Christchurch University
1998 Diploma in Fine Art, Grimsby College
Selected Teaching
2022 - 2025 Penn Studio School of Art
2019 Heatherley's School of Art, London
2014 - 2024 Art Academy, London
2010 - 2014 Kent Adult Education
2008 - 2009 Centre for Flexible Learning, University of Kent