James Rowland, originally from Scotland, currently resides in Paraty, Brazil. He holds a degree in Geophysics from the University of Edinburgh, UK, and has completed a designer-maker course in woodworking at the British school Waters & Acland.

His relationship with art began when, driven by a desire to create and shape, he explored ‘purposeless’ creation, allowing himself to be guided by raw wood, where he found freedom in the pursuit of forms beyond the functionality of the furniture he used to craft. James’s works reflect his perception of the traces left by the passage of time on natural forms and the ancestral relationship between humans and nature—in other words, how our relationship with it has changed over time. These two focal points of his research have roots in his childhood in Scotland, influenced by the distinctly marked seasons of the biome and the mystery of the country’s Neolithic stone circles.

The relationship between time and natural cycles is evident in the biomorphic forms he sculpts in wood, seeking to convey the natural beauty of these transitions, like scars etched into the landscape, through texture and reliefs, aiming to capture the image of natural fissures and voids in a tribute to the adage that “nothing withstands the passage of time.”

Another recurring theme in his work is the influence of our relationship with nature on our beliefs and folklore, stemming from a time when this interaction was much more abundant than it is today—a scarcity that shapes us and has led to our current state.

The choice of wood used in his work is intuitive and varies from piece to piece, sometimes involving specific planning that, for the artist, demands a certain colour and texture, or the impulse to create something from scraps, seeking in the tone of each type of wood a way to enhance its beauty and form.