Elsa James is a British African-Caribbean artist and activist who grew up in West London and now lives and works in Essex. Her collaborative, research-led practice interrogates constructions of Black identity, modes of belonging, and the enduring legacies of the British Empire. Working across live performance, moving image, photography, collage, sound, and text-based works in screenprint and large-scale neon, her interdisciplinary practice foregrounds culturally rooted ways of knowing as a foundation for resistance, speculative inquiry, and critical hope. As a descendant of the Windrush generation, James draws on the legacies of migration and cultural survival, grounding her practice in Caribbean diasporic histories and an intuitive connection to her African heritage.
James’ artworks, live performances and films have been exhibited and screened internationally and across the UK, including Gagosian, Tate Britain, National Martime Museum, Copperfield, Goldsmiths CCA, Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image and Mimosa House, London; Firstsite and Focal Point Gallery, Essex; G.A.S. Foundation, Lagos, Nigeria; Art Museum at the University of Toronto, Canada; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Arizona, USA and VISUAL Carlow, Ireland. Her works are held in both private and public collections, including the UK Government Art Collection and Beecroft Art Gallery, where she became the first Black British artist to have her work acquired for the gallery's permanent collection.
In 2024, James was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Essex in recognition of her contributions to contemporary art and cultural history in Essex—most notably through works, Forgotten Black Essex, Black Girl Essex: Here We Come, Look We Here and The Black Essex Flag, which brought national attention to the region’s overlooked Black presence and histories. She was a finalist for the Freelands Award in 2021 with Focal Point Gallery for her debut solo exhibition Othered in a region that has been historically Othered, and a recipient of the Henry Moore Foundation Artist Award in 2023. In 2022, she was named one of the 50 Most Influential People in Essex.
James is currently undertaking a Master of Research at the Royal College of Art as a recipient of the Sir Frank Bowling Scholarship (2024-26).
