James Bourbon

James Bourbon is a self-taught visual artist working across painting, collage, drawing, textiles and installation. His practice explores the visual residue of modern life, the symbols, slogans and fragments that shape memory, identity and belief.

Drawing from a personal archive of found imagery, printed ephemera and mass media, Bourbon builds layered, graphic-driven works that speak to consumerism and cultural collapse. The process begins in research, deep dives into the past, sourcing QSL cards, comic books, advertising clippings, propaganda leaflets and newspaper cuttings, before cutting, combining and reworking them into new forms. The result blurs the line between nostalgia and critique, challenging what we inherit and what we consume.

He has exhibited across Australia and internationally, including in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Chicago and London.