James R. Ford b. 1980

James R Ford (b. 1980) is a British conceptual and post-Internet artist whose work contemplates human needs and wants, absurdity in the everyday, and the search for meaning in art and life. Ford is known for his looped short films, object assemblage, text statements and minimalist mark making.

Art critic Peter Dornauf has written, “Ford’s oeuvre is a timely reminder that the role of art can still address, with a certain verve, age-old concerns that reach beyond the confines of the political. In a world where so much conceptual art is dead boring, Ford, with his wit, panache and mischievous intelligent practice, avoids that pitfall. He delivers.”

Ford studied at Nottingham Trent University and then Goldsmiths College in England, before relocating to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2009. He has exhibited widely since 2007 in public, private and artist run spaces both in New Zealand, the United Kingdom as well as further afield internationally. He has also instigated and worked on a number of curatorial and publication projects.

In 2013 Ford was winner of the inaugural Tui McLauchlan Emerging Artist's Award from the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts. His work Back and forth and round and round, from the Chartwell Collection, was included in the exhibition "All That Was Solid Melts" in 2021 at the Auckland Art Gallery and prior in "We're Not Too Big to Care" at the Gus Fisher Gallery, University of Auckland.