James Newitt

Biography

James was born in Hobart, Tasmania in 1981, and in 2007 graduated with a PhD from the University of Tasmania, School of Art. In 2012-13 he participated in the Maumaus Independent Study Program in Lisbon, Portugal, with the support of an Anne and Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship. James continues to divide his time between Hobart and Lisbon.James has exhibited his work in group and solo exhibitions in museums, galleries, film festivals and independent art spaces throughout Australia and Europe. He has worked on large-scale collaborative and public art projects and was a founding member and past director of INFLIGHT artist run initiative in Hobart. James has received state and national funding grants for individual and collaborative projects and has been awarded international studio residencies in Los Angeles and Liverpool, UK through the Australia Council for the Arts. In 2012 he was awarded the prestigious Samstag Scholarship, in 2010 he won the City of Hobart Art Prize and in 2009 he was awarded the Qantas Foundation, Encouragement of Contemporary Art Award.

Research Interest

James' research engages with specific social, cultural and historic contexts through artworks, exhibitions, presentations and writing. His work connects to the University's research theme of Creativity, Culture and Society. Within his research, James expands a legacy of documentary practice to playfully investigate ways of telling social realities. His work confronts problematic assumption of the documentary as an artefact or narrative that tells objective truth by embracing mutability, paradox and exploring fluid spaces between fact and fiction, memory and history.