Latest Shape collaboration: James Lake was the recipient of the Adam Reynolds Award Bursary in 2023. Previously he has been an exhibiting artist in the Shape Open across the years and featured in our Shape Gallery, 1 January - 31 December 2013. His work 'Sitting Without Purpose' is part of our Shape Collection.

James Lake was also announced as one of the recipients of the Henry Moore Foundation's Artist Awards in 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Artist Statement: I choose to work with cardboard as a sculptural material due to its properties of it being recyclable, low cost, readily available and locally sourced. My intention is to produce sculptures which echo the detail and the depth found within traditional sculpting materials at a time of great time of global economic and environmental upheaval. My work is a search for a common truth and to find a sense of quiet humanity in the small details that are sometimes drowned out by the noise and brightness of contemporary culture.

Transforming the utilitarian and overlooked cardboard box into a sophisticated and elaborate sculpting material. Like the portrait painter, cardboard does not require several complex processes to make the finished work, this limited palette keeps the process organic and flexible.

The process and outcomes have always been intertwined with the practicalities of making work with a physical impairment; I lost my right leg to cancer. Working within the social model of disability, I share my process as a way of subtlety breaking down barriers for others. My work pieces fragments of visual information together, strategically positioning pieces in a grand jigsaw puzzle, echoing the problem-solving skills that all dyslexics, of which I am one, develop to write things down.

'The Art of Recycling' Greenlight Digital Production (2017) for Packaging Company - Rajapak

Check out Jame's website   See all the artists we work with

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Banner Image: James Lake 'Sitting Without Purpose' (1998). Description: A cardboard sculpture of a person sat on a sofa. They wear glasses and have short hair.