Jim Rampage

Born in Berkshire, currently living and working in London. Rampage received his BA in Fine Art at the University For the Creative Arts in 2015 and completed his MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Arts in London (2021-2023), his work has been exhibited in Europe and the United Kingdom and is a recipient of a 2023 Snowdon Trust award, Stanley award, alongside past awards from Arts Council England.

Bouncing between hand-painting digital-looking text, graphics and sculpture, his primary focus revolves around the belief that language or text is akin to a physical material; it is like bricks or mortar. Language has the dual ability to generate anxiety whilst it can simultaneously remedy it. At one end of the spectrum, you could locate the absurd and poetic; at the other, there is a conversation of process and allegory: polarisation between verbal and non-verbal modes of communication. Text in society authenticates and defines spaces; the single addition of a word can change an entire directive is an open-ended methodology to the practices exorcism. Text paintings draw from conversations, dictaphone renderings, Reddit, forums, texts, dating, relationship advice and online self-help spaces, where banality and language is decontextualised. Beyond this framework, Is a regurgitating interest in objects of self-defence, protection and prevention. Enlarged knuckleduster iterations attempt to strike a balance between exerting the semiotics of fetish, alongside violence and tenderness.