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Merlin James (born 1960 in Cardiff, Wales) is an artist, writer and critic living and working in Glasgow, Scotland.

Life and Work
James studied at Central School of Art and Design and the Royal College of Art in London but, unlike the YBA artists of his generation, chose to leave the capital and base his practice in Scotland. James' artistic production primarily takes the form of small-scale paintings on stretched canvas or polyester.

He consciously positions his practice outside of and in coversation with historical conventions of painting, ranging from the faux-naive depiction of landscapes, figures and animals to the creation of abstract color fields. His paintings are executed in a wide range of techniques, including the use of heavy impasto, painting on transparencies over exposed stretcher bars, the application of visceral materials, such as hair and dirt, to the canvas or carving holes in the canvas itself. His pointed eschewing of the ironic stance familiar to postmodernist art in favor of a painterly practice with a distinctly historiographical tilt reveals the true conceptual depth belied by James' small canvases.

As a critic and art historian Merlin James has published many works, including a book on the British artist David Jones and essays and articles on the Russian/French painter Serge Charchoune. James is considered the 'champion' of many artists overlooked or under appreciated by the art historical narrative, including André Derain, Chaïm Soutine, Jean Hélion, Walter Sickert and L. S. Lowry. In 2002 he became the first to hold the Alex Katz Visiting Chair in Painting at Cooper Union. In 2007 James represented Wales at the 52nd Venice Biennale.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

 * 2014 "Merlin James - Paintings, Drawings, Prints", Aanant & Zoo, Berlin, Germany
 * 2014 Freestyle, Kunstverein Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
 * 2013 Signal Box, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
 * 2013 Merlin James, Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London, UK
 * 2007 Merlin James, Venice Biennale, 52nd International Art Exhibition, Wales Pavilion, Italy
 * 2005 Merlin James, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY, USA
 * 2001 Merlin James, Andrew Mummery Gallery, London, UK
 * 1995 Poussin's Phocion, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, Wales

Selected Group Exhibitions

 * 2013 Inevitable Figuration, Museo Pecci, Prato, Italy
 * 2013 Picture Show, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Scotland
 * 2010 Long Long Gone, Leo Koenig, New York, NY, USA
 * 2008/9 21: Selections of Contemporary Art from the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY, USA
 * 2006 Faces of a Collections, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany
 * 2004 On the Edge of Real, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK

Selected Bibliography

 * Serge Charchoune. James, Merlin and Annick Morard, Allander, Edinburgh, 2013.
 * Painting per se. Texts for a lecture given by Merlin James at Cooper Union Great Hall, New York, 28 February, 2002.
 * Easel Painting. Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, 2002, ISBN: 1873108427
 * Lowry's People. Lowry, the University of Virginia, 2000, ISBN: 9781902970073
 * The Non Existence of Art Criticism. Text of a lecture given by Merlin James at the New York Studio School, New York and the Tate Gallery, London, Kingston University, Kingston, 1996, ISBN: 1899999051
 * David Jones 1895-1974: A Map of the Artist's Mind. Lund Humphries Publishers, 1995, ISBN: 0853316791
 * Engaging Images: "practical criticism" and Visual Art. James, Merlin and J.P Dick. Menard Press, 1992, ISBN: 9780903400855