James McGrath
James McGrath is an Australian artist and architect working at the intersection of traditional painting,
architecture and digital media. Over 25 years and 20+ solo exhibitions, he has developed a signature Baroque theatricality — fusing 16th-century libraries, Dutch still life and environmental data into immersive images. His digital work has shown at The Lume, the Detroit Institute of Arts and the J. Paul Getty Museum.
The Patron
2026
Archival pigment print
Image size: 43 × 56 cm
Framed size: 66 x 80 cm
Edition 2 of 8
£605
The first of the four ranks. The sitter's authority is carried entirely by the staging: the drapery, the light, the depth of the set — and the horse that outlasts him.
The Court: A suite of four formal portraits — The Patron, The Pretender, The Duchess, The Heir. Each scene is built as a three-dimensional theatre set, after the teatrini of Tintoretto and Poussin: 3D scans of real horses staged for light and depth, then layered by hand with high-resolution photographs of the artist's own studio canvases and historic landscapes from museum archives. A single recurring horse holds the central role. The riders are rendered as vacant, hollow vestments — the animal stands permanent while human authority vanishes.
The Pretender
2026
Archival pigment print
Image size: 56 × 43 cm
Framed size: 80 × 66 cm
Edition: 1 of 8
£605
A claim to the line rather than a place in it. The same set, the same light, the pose held a fraction too carefully.
The Court: A suite of four formal portraits — The Patron, The Pretender, The Duchess, The Heir. Each scene is built as a three-dimensional theatre set, after the teatrini of Tintoretto and Poussin: 3D scans of real horses staged for light and depth, then layered by hand with high-resolution photographs of the artist's own studio canvases and historic landscapes from museum archives. A single recurring horse holds the central role. The riders are rendered as vacant, hollow vestments — the animal stands permanent while human authority vanishes.
The Duchess
2026
Archival pigment print
Image size: 56 × 43 cm
Framed size: 80 × 66 cm
Edition 1 of 8
£605
Rank by marriage and by cloth. The vestments do the work of the portrait; what wore them has gone.
The Court: A suite of four formal portraits — The Patron, The Pretender, The Duchess, The Heir. Each scene is built as a three-dimensional theatre set, after the teatrini of Tintoretto and Poussin: 3D scans of real horses staged for light and depth, then layered by hand with high-resolution photographs of the artist's own studio canvases and historic landscapes from museum archives. A single recurring horse holds the central role. The riders are rendered as vacant, hollow vestments — the animal stands permanent while human authority vanishes.
The Heir
2026
Archival pigment print
Image size 56 × 43 cm
Framed size 80 × 66 cm
Edition 1 of 8
£605
The last rank, and the youngest — inheritance staged as bloodstock. The horse is the only figure in the suite with a future.
The Court: A suite of four formal portraits — The Patron, The Pretender, The Duchess, The Heir. Each scene is built as a three-dimensional theatre set, after the teatrini of Tintoretto and Poussin: 3D scans of real horses staged for light and depth, then layered by hand with high-resolution photographs of the artist's own studio canvases and historic landscapes from museum archives. A single recurring horse holds the central role. The riders are rendered as vacant, hollow vestments — the animal stands permanent while human authority vanishes.
A View, On Loan
2026
Archival pigment print
image size 70 × 94 cm
framed size 86 × 110 cm
Edition 4 of 5
£1,065
A landscape that resists belonging to the interior it occupies. Built as a digital photomontage, the composition uses 3D spatial staging to construct an impossible room, combining high-resolution captures of the artist's studio canvases with historical landscapes from museum archives. As the title implies, the final view is propped casually against the wall like a scenic prop — a temporary loan from nature that will, eventually, be recalled.
Heron and Books
2026
Oil on canvas
80 × 120 cm
£3,950








