James de Villiers
Born 10 March 1954
Pietermaritzburg, Kwazulu-Natal.
Currently lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.
James de Villiers' artwork explores the profound intersections between modern science, ancient philosophy, and spiritual inquiry. Influenced by particle physics, the vast structure of Laniakea, Hindu cosmology, the Large Hadron Collider and Zen, the work moves between abstraction and realism to bridge the seen and unseen.
The abstract works draw on the dynamic movement of subatomic particles, cosmic maps, and disrupted grids. Scale, colour, and rhythm become visual metaphors for forces that ordinarily remain invisible: collision, decay, renewal, and the continuous passage of time.
The realist works turn toward sky, garden, and organic matter. Clouds, twigs, leaves, and decomposing botanical forms carry a quieter meditation on impermanence, vulnerability, and the recovery of nature.
Across both modes, the portfolio holds chaos and order in tension. Each piece invites viewers to consider the microscopic and macroscopic at once — the grain of dust, the galaxy cluster, the constructed grid, and the living world that exceeds it.
Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa. 2026
Exhibitions
James de Villiers has artwork in many private and corporate collections
in South Africa and abroad.
Most of his art is exhibited and sold online.
2023 Latitudes Online group exhibition: LAND // sites of (be)longing. 5 April to 17 May.
2023 Latitudes Online group exhibition: REVERB 23 Abstract Resonances // Contemporary Voices
8th Feb to 24th of Mar.
8th Feb to 24th of Mar.
2022 Group Exhibition StateoftheART Gallery, Cape Town
2021 July-Aug: Affordable Art Fair 2021 at EDG2020 Gallery, Kyalami, Johannesburg.
Awarded second prize for Vortex, a multimedia screenprinted work on paper.
Awarded second prize for Vortex, a multimedia screenprinted work on paper.
2020 Exhibited and sold artworks online during the pandemic. Completed a large painting commission.
2019 Exhibited paintings at The Pencil Art Foundation in Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal
2018 July: Group show at White River Gallery, Mpumalanga, titled "Na die Maal" (After the Meal)
2018 May Paintings exhibited at StateoftheART Gallery, Cape Town
2018 April onwards. Group exhibition at The Art of Silver Gallery in Cullinan
2017 11 Feb-12 March "Untitled" group exhibition at the Moor Gallery Franschhoek
2017 Jan 7- Feb 5 "Genre" group exhibition at the Moor Gallery Franschhoek
2016 "Ephemeral Pleasures" group exhibition at the Moor Gallery Franschhoek
2016 August- Oct: "Muse Montage" group exhibition at Eclectica Design and Art
2016 July: A pastel painting titled "After the Battle" accepted by the Delville Wood Memorial Museum in the Somme, France
2016 July 7-23 Group exhibition Scapes: Rhythms of an environment at StateoftheART Gallery, Cape Town
2016 June: Group exhibition at Halifax Art Gallery in Parkhurst, Johannesburg
2016 May 5: Optical Diversions, a group exhibition at Eclectica Design and Art Gallery, Cape Town
2016 May 5: Optical Diversions, a group exhibition at Eclectica Design and Art Gallery, Cape Town
2016 January: Executed a commission to do a series of skies for a client of The Gavin Project.
2015 Exhibited works at Gavin Project, Arts on Main, Maboneng, Johannesburg.
2015 September. Rogue Art 1 group exhibition at Carfax, Johannesburg
2015 July. Studio exhibition at Carfax to open my studio
2013 October Solo exhibition: “Decay Transfigured” at Gallery on 6th in Parkhurst, Johannesburg.
2013 Group show at Gallery on 6th in Parkhurst, Johannesburg.
2011 Group show “Altered Pieces” at the Thompson Gallery
2010 March: Solo exhibition “Earth & Sky” at Right on the Rim at Arts on Main in Johannesburg.
2009 Participated in GTZ International Photographic workshop and exhibition, “Diversity, the impulse for development”. Johannesburg and Pretoria.
2009 “War and Hate” group exhibition at Right on the Rim, Arts on Main, Johannesburg
2006 “Nature Morte” a solo exhibition at the Gordart gallery in Melville, Johannesburg
2005 March 11 - 18: Solo exhibition “Earth & Sky” at the Gerard Sekoto Gallery, Alliance Francaise, Johannesburg
2005 January 16 - February 9: Exhibition “Forty Hand painted Pictures” at Gordart Gallery
2004 Exhibited on group shows at Gordart Gallery, Melville “For the Record/Off the Record”. Organised and performed in “Mayday Experimental music evening” at Gordart.
2004 Exhibited in Christmas Miniature show Gordart Gallery
1999 Participated in a group exhibition touring Mexico and the US, “Transmigrations 1999”
1998 Participated in a group show, ”Buttons” at the Civic Gallery, Johannesburg
1997 The Beat Hotel Carfax, Newtown Jhb
Eurovirus #1, 2 & 3 Carfax, Newtown, Jhb
Eurovirus #1, 2 & 3 Carfax, Newtown, Jhb
1997 Participated as an artist in Jahn Beukes’ “Group Spiral” music production
1996 “Landscapes”, two-man show with Pieter Swanepoel at Gallery Palette, Pretoria Art Gallery
1995 Curators Choice Exhibition, Rembrandt Gallery, Johannesburg
1994 “Biting The Ballot”, Rembrandt Gallery, Johannesburg
1994 Group Show at the ICA, Johannesburg
1993 Solo exhibition at the Long Gallery, S A Association of Art Gallery, Cape Town
1993 Johannesburg Corporate Art, a group show at the Artists Co-Operative, Midrand
1993 Group Show, Newtown Galleries (Ricky Burnett), Johannesburg
1993 Alternative Photographic Print Workshop, University Witwatersrand and the ICA with Bob Cnoops
1993 “Drawing with light”, group show, ICA, Johannesburg
1993 Group Show, Anti-Gravity Gallery, Rosebank, Johannesburg
1992 Usable Art, Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Johannesburg
1992 Exhibition/demonstration at the annual South African Art Historians Conference, UNISA, Pretoria
1992 101 Miniatures, ICA, Johannesburg
1992 “Made in August” exhibition at the Newtown Galleries, Johannesburg
1991 Kempton Park Art Competition, overall and category winner
1985 First Solo exhibition at the Market Gallery, Johannesburg
