Richard James
Richard James is a South African and British artist whose work draws on sculpture, Zen practice, counselling and affect theory. I designed and built a portfolio that gives decades of work room to be seen, while giving Richard a private system for managing it himself.
A body of work, not a feed
The archive spans work made across many years, with recurring materials and ideas that are easier to understand together than as isolated posts. The home experience lets visitors move through the work by year, while individual pages hold the title, medium, text and full image sequence for each project.
The interface stays quiet, but it is not neutral. Scale, pacing and transitions are used to give each work a clear moment without turning the site itself into the performance.
The thinking belongs beside the work
Richard’s practice is informed by Buddhist thought, affect theory and his experience as a counsellor. The About page and his essay, The Unborn Rags of the Mind, are part of the portfolio rather than background material hidden away from it. They give visitors a direct way to understand the questions running through the work.
Project pages remain visually led, while longer writing uses a calmer reading layout. The two modes share one identity without asking the artwork and the essay to behave like the same kind of content.
Simple to visit, practical to maintain
The public site is built as fast static pages, with images prepared for the places they appear. Behind it is a private editorial system where Richard can add projects, arrange galleries, edit page copy and control search and social descriptions without touching the code.
Publishing creates a fresh version of the public site. Visitors get a focused portfolio with no editing software attached to the experience, while Richard keeps the control needed for the archive to continue growing.