CV
‘If I were called in to construct a religion, I should make use of water.’
Philip Larkin
Over the past four decades, my practice has been defined by a profound dedication to the studio, using photography and the mechanics of water to cultivate a distinctive, painterly aesthetic where the resulting images appear more like paintings than photographs. Through this process I am able to paint my subjects with light, re-enacting the spirit of Caravaggio through deep tenebrism and chiaroscuro. Each work is created entirely in-camera and presented exactly as shot, without any form of post-production.
I have also devoted myself to complex site-specific projects of cultural and environmental significance, from establishing the ´Red October Studio´ in Moscow, just metres from the Kremlin; to founding ´Dark Vat´ artist residency that reactivated an abandoned photographic paper factory in Siberia; to ´Renaciendo´, a landmark project that reopened Spain’s last standing Carmelite convent after more than 170 years of closure; and most recently ´Makers Place´, the first carbon-neutral plastic and aluminium recycling facility to begin operations in the Maldives.
Together, these projects reflect an enduring commitment to meaningful practice while inspiring both cultural and environmental stewardship.
Alexander James Hamilton
born 1967, London
Studio, Madrid
SOLO EXHIBITIONS (selected)
2025 ‘Goya, reborn in water’ in the 10th-century Castillo de la Piedra Bermeja.
2021 ‘Drink Less’ sculpture exhibition made from island cleanup interventions.
2020 ‘Renaciendo’, derelict Baroque Carmelite convent dating from 1688.
2019 ‘Breaking the plastic habit’ public installation for Climate Week, London.
2018 ‘Visions from the shoreline’ Dellasposa Gallery, London.
2017 ‘Death of the dream’ Dellasposa Gallery, London.
2017 ‘All icons are false’ D-Contemporary Gallery, London.
2016 ‘The illusion of oil’ Ekaterinburg, Russia.
2015 ‘Oil + Water’ site-specific installation in the forests of Siberia.
2014 ‘Vanitas’ Cafe Royal, London.
2014 ‘Rastvorennaya Pechal’ Triumph Gallery, Moscow.
2013 ‘Intersection’ London.
2012 ‘A beautiful announcement of death’ PA&G Gallery, London.
2010 ‘Taxi’ Ann330 Gallery, Los Angeles.
2010 ‘Tokyo Green’ Conningsby Gallery, London.
2009 ‘Space & Time’, London.
2008 ‘Working Water’ RCP Gallery, Sydney.
2006 ‘Flight’ The Boiler House, Shanghai.
2004 ‘Shift’ 109 Building, Shibuya, Tokyo.
2003 ‘No Logo’ Maison Bastille, Paris.
2002 ‘The Colour Candy’ G & A Gallery, Sydney.
2000 ‘Flesh & Foliage’ Loft 56, New York.
1999 ‘Liquid Mechanics’ 18 installations mapping endangered chalk streams, UK..
1996 ´Defluxio' deviation plinths installed within Los Angeles floodwater causeways, USA.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS (selected)
2021 'Objects & Structures', Russian Academy Of Science.
2019 ‘Dark Vat’ re-purposing a disused photographic paper factory in Siberia.
2018 ‘Site Unseen’, Dellasposa Gallery, London.
2017 ‘Contemporary Still Life’, City of London Guildhall, London.
2017 ‘Ars Moriendi’, Dellasposa Gallery, London.
2017 ‘Vanitas’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Four Domes Pavilion, Warsaw.
2016 ‘Still Life’, Bohuslans Museum, Sweden.
2016 ‘Reinvigorating the Still Life’, Konsthallen Bohuslän Museum, Sweden.
2015 ‘Natre Morte’, Hå Gamle Prestegard Museum exhibition, Stavanger, Norway.
2011 ‘Iconoclasts’, Lloyds Club, London.
2011 ‘The House of the Nobleman’, London.
2011 ‘Still Even’, Pertwee Anderson & Gold Gallery, London.
2010 ‘You Are Here’, Flaere Gallery, London.
PROJECTS (selected)
2024 ‘Designing A Circular Future’ A series of university circular design workshops.
2022 ‘Waste to Wealth’ plastic & aluminium recycling workshops.
2021 Siberian winter studio relocation to complete unfinished works from ‘Oil + Water’.
2021 Design & install a plastic & aluminium recycling facility, Maldives.
2020 Opening the last Baroque Carmelite convent, closed for 170 years.
2019 Keynote speaker and studio host to the Plastic Free Design Workshop, Siberia.
2019 ‘Dark Vat’ artist residency, 15 artists in a disused photographic paper factory.
2019 Invited as a keynote speaker at Plastic Free Maldives legacy workshop.
2018 20 works donated to fully fund a community plastic & aluminium recycling facility.
2017 Studio relocates Baa Atoll, Maldives to create ´Visions from the shoreline´.
2015 Studio relocates to the forests of Siberia to create a new body of work ‘Oil + Water’.
2014 Artist talk ‘Deconstructing Flow Practice’ Cafe Royal, London.
2013 Studio relocates to ‘Red October’ chocolate factory, Moscow.
2012 ‘Tokyo Taxi’ — a collection of photography & texts (2002–2012) published by Merrell.
1995 Fabricated & distributed salt-water solar stills to remote island nation inhabitants.
1986 9-month kayak expedition, Maldives, distributing aluminium can crushers.
SELECTED AUCTION RESULTS (pdf)
Alexander James Hamilton b.1967
primary and secondary market sales
