SUPRIYA JAMES CREATES VISCERAL ARTWORKS THAT EVOKE HER ENVIRONMENTALIST SENSIBILITIES.

 Love Like Blood, 2023 is a metaphysical exploration of the artist's ancestral land, colour, and the sublime.

Last Summer, Supriya James returned to her country of birth, Guyana, in South America, after having immigrated to Canada 43 years ago. In this tiny, third-world country located at the northern tip of SouthAmerica, she wanted to test her childhood memories against the realities of beingphysically present. 

This was a journey made of dreams that unfolded into myriad realities, some beautiful and some not.

The bittersweet sensibility of this work manifests her overwhelming joy and trepidation of being on and in the magical, tea-coloured waters of the Essequibo River that runs through the Amazon rainforest of Guyana.

Along the Essequibo River, old memories collided with new ones. The screeching parrots flying across the sky,the scorching heat, and the bright colours of the tea-coloured water – allsynthesized into a transcendental journey on a visual level.

While “Love like Blood, 2023” emanates temporality, magic, and the sublime, it also emanates a foreboding feeling forwhat’s to come: This Heaven on Earth could soon be a bloodbath if Guyana’sneighbour, Venezuela, acts on its current threats to seize over two-thirds ofthe country so that it can gain access to Guyana’s newly-discovered oil richlands on the Essequibo’s shores.

The artist's work appeals to the need for theprotection and preservation of the Amazon rainforest and of the Guyanese peoplebefore the potential devastation of further oil drilling and war with Venezuela.

Global environmental disasters, dead sea life drifting ashore with swollen bellies burst open with tiny pieces of plastic, and rocks now forming with human-made plastic:  all of these pollutants influenced the thematics of  Plasticene, 2024. 

This work presents a  dystopic, imaginary world that shows both the damage to our environment and the potential for us to reclaim the magic of our natural world. 

In creating this work, Supriya James wants politically-stimulate and activate the community to be mindful stewards of our environment.

This work illustrates the artist's apocalyptic vision of what the planet would look like if we, humans, do not take care of our water, soil, and air. 

In creating this work, she wanted to activate the community to be mindful stewards of our environment.

The concept and title for the painting was derived from the expression, the “pink elephant rule”, which is an unspoken rule about topics which are off-limits as they are contentious and tend to make people uncomfortable.