James Lambie (born 1964 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a contemporary visual artist, and was shortlisted for the 2005 Turner Prize with an installation called Mental Oyster.
Jim Lambie graduated from the Glasgow School of Art (1990-1994) with a Honors Bachelor of Arts degree. He lives and works in Glasgow, and also operates as a musician and DJ. He once played in the popular Glaswegian band The Boy Hairdressers, which went on to become Teenage Fanclub.
Lambie specialises in colourful sculptural installations made from everyday modern materials including pop culture objects, such as posters and album covers, and household accessories. The other trademark theme in his artistic practice is using brightly coloured vinyl tape arranged into patterns around the floor of the gallery space, tracing the shape of the room to reveal the idiosyncrasies of its architecture. The vinyl tape, an everyday material applied in continuous lines, has a capacity to transform the dynamics of space, changing a quiet gallery space into an energetic and emotional space of sensory pleasure. Lambie creates a rhythm that vibrates and pulsates, and even confuses and disorients the spectator. According to Lambie: “For me something like Zobop, the floor piece, it is creating so many edges that they all dissolve. Is the room expanding or contracting? … Covering an object somehow evaporates the hard edge off the thing, and pulls you towards more of a dreamscape.”
In addition to his mesmerizing floor installations, Lambie creates found object sculptures.
Jim Lambie
Published by The Modern Institute, Glasgow; Sadie Coles HQ, London and Anton Kern Gallery, New York in collaboration with Koenig Books, London Texts by Will Bradley and Rob Tufnell Hardcover, 125 pages, English, Glasgow 2004 ISBN