Philjames Australia, b. 1976

Lives and works in Sydney, Australia

Philjames is a Sydney-based artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans painting, sculpture and drawing. His work is characterised by a distinctive process: carefully reworking vintage paintings and prints by inserting figures from mid-20th century animation, most often characters from the worlds of Disney and Looney Tunes. These surreal juxtapositions, rendered with the precision of a conservator, both disrupt and reanimate the original artworks. While his imagery often draws on humour and nostalgia, the results are far from frivolous; the playful surface conceals deeper tensions about time, belief systems and the blurred lines between high and low culture.

Over the past decade, Philjames has developed a growing reputation for his ability to blend satire with sincerity, creating works that reflect on history, popular media and the anxiety that simmers beneath social order. His recent series Pleasure Island marked a significant evolution in his practice, moving away from the readymade and instead constructing vivid, imagined worlds directly onto canvas. He has exhibited widely at institutions and commercial galleries across Australia, and has collaborated with notable artists such as Polly Borland and Robert Malherbe. His work frequently appears as a finalist in major national prizes including the Sulman, Blake, and Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship.

Philjames studied Fine Art at the National Art School, where he received early recognition for his printmaking. His work is held in numerous private and public collections, including Artbank and BlueScope Steel. In 2024, he drew national attention for a controversial Blake Prize work that reimagined a biblical scene using cartoon characters; a moment that sparked public debate and cemented his position as an artist unafraid to provoke. Though his aesthetic may initially disarm with its comic familiarity, Philjames’s practice ultimately asks urgent questions about belief, authorship and the cultural images we inherit.