James Ormsby: Revelations

 

 

R E V E L A T I O N S (PPV1)
Pigment ink, silver and gold on paper, 2021
60cm(h) x 5m(w)

James Ormsby is of Māori and Scottish heritage. He has Ngāti Maniapoto, Waikato, Te Arawa and Kātimana (Scottish) affiliations and draws on all of these in his art practice. His sources are eclectic and his artwork is clearly bicultural, invariably making reference to his ancestry and to his Christian religion, both of which constantly influence and guide him. Throughout the process of developing and presenting his personal vision, in his art-led research Ormsby has investigated what his ancestors, both Māori whenua and Scottish, would have used to make their marks, the materials they had access to and the symbols they employed to communicate their message. From this knowledge base, Ormsby draws on sources that his forebears would be able to recognize and associate with. From this, he has developed a distinctive personal vocabulary of visual symbols, techniques and materials.

He uses natural pigments, wax, inks and oils, as well as graphite, and in combination with these, he employs new technology to develop a distinctive visual language. Ormsby has a Masters of Fine Arts from RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Australia) and has work in collections of Te Papa Tongarewa, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki amongst many others.

View more work by James HERE.