Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1953 Melbourne, Australia

Year of Migration to the UK: 1963

Other name/s: Shani Rhys James MBE

Biography

Artist Shani Rhys James was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1953. Her father was a Welsh surgeon, and her mother, an Australian actor and artist. Following her parents' separation, Rhys James moved to England with her mother in 1963, where she pursued her art training, first at Loughborough School of Art and later at St Martin’s School of Art in London, receiving a BA in Painting in 1976. At art school, Rhys James defied the prevailing trend of abstraction, choosing instead to investigate the psychological and emotional depths of figurative painting. ‘I found the freedom of paint and expression to focus on the psychological impact of the figure,’ she observed (Art UK Stories). This marked the beginning of her lifelong exploration of self-portraiture and themes centered around identity, domesticity, and the role of women.

In 1977, Rhys James married fellow artist Stephen West. The couple initially lived in Whitechapel, east London, with her studio at Butlers Wharf, near Tower Bridge. In 1984, they moved to a derelict farmhouse in Mid-Wales, converting its barns into studios. This relocation allowed Rhys James to immerse herself fully in her art while bringing up their two sons in a setting that was creatively enriching, influenced by memories of her own childhood and theatrical elements from her mother’s acting career.

Rhys James' themes often examine the female experience within domestic spaces, with bold, psychologically charged compositions. Her paintings often depict interiors filled with jugs, plates, and furniture, imbued with a tension that reflects a deeper commentary on the vulnerabilities and realities faced by women, offering a subversive twist. ‘Being an artist is a struggle, and you have to keep battling on,’ she noted, highlighting her awareness of operating within a male-dominated art world (Art UK Stories). Her work uses striking colours and unsettling juxtapositions, challenging traditional depictions of femininity. Her domestic scenes often incorporate flowers, both as motifs in wallpaper and as still-life elements, with symbolic meanings. Remarking on the symbolic power of flowers during the Covid pandemic, Rhys James noted their ability to juxtapose life and death, beauty and transience. ‘Flowers are powerful things,’ she has stated, drawing parallels between her work and that of Van Gogh and Anselm Kiefer (Wales Arts Review). Rhys James’s creative process is marked by instinctive composition. She avoids extensive preparatory sketches, instead building her paintings directly on the canvas. This intuitive approach allows her to capture raw emotion and the immediacy of her subjects. Domestic objects, including scissors, mirrors, and combs, often appear, transforming into symbols of both empowerment and confinement, reflecting her ongoing dialogue with femininity and its societal constructs, blending the mundane with the symbolic. The theatricality in her paintings also speaks to her upbringing in a household connected to performance. Her work draws heavily on literary and philosophical influences, including Samuel Beckett’s dark humour and Boccaccio’s Decameron, whose themes of life, death, and isolation resonate deeply in her narrative compositions. In Madame Bovary (2019), she reimagines Gustave Flaubert’s protagonist as a symbol of entrapment, wrapping the figure in a flower-covered kimono surrounded by symbolic objects that hint at inner turmoil. This piece, alongside others, highlights her interest in the domestic sphere as both a site of creativity and a ‘gilded cage’ for women (Ruth Millington 2022).

In the 2000s, Rhys James further pushed her exploration of the self, painting stark self-portraits that dissect identity and emotion. One series, titled Heads, involved the use of a hand-held mirror to ‘divide the face up as a landscape’ (Art UK Stories). Her work often blurs the line between self-reflection and broader commentary, resonating with viewers on both personal and societal levels. Her collaborative and multimedia projects mark significant points in her career. In 2006, Rhys James received a Creative Wales Award from the Arts Council of Wales, which allowed her to create kinetic, sound-based sculptural automata that brought to life childhood memories of her parents’ theatre. A subsequent award in 2013 facilitated Florilingua, an installation combining painting, sound, and video, and featured poetry from contemporary poets.

Rhys James has exhibited extensively, including at the Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, the Museum of Modern Art, Machynlleth and in the Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize. Solo exhibitions include Hunan-Ynysu: Self Island at Connaught Brown, London (2021), which reflected her experiences of isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by States of Mind (2024), which examined themes of coexistence, life and death, and the tension between home and studio life. In 2014, she was profiled in the BBC documentary series What Do Artists Do All Day?, and in 2021, she was part of The Story of Welsh Art. Rhys James has received many accolades, including second place in the BP National Portrait Award in 1994 and the Jerwood Painting Prize in 2003. She was elected to the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art in 1994, received an MBE for services to Welsh Art in 2006, and was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from Wrexham Glyndŵr University in 2017. In the UK public domain, Shani Rhys James' work is represented in the Jerwood Collection, Women’s Art Collection, and National Museum Cardiff, among others.

Related books

The Spider, the Plants and the Black, Black Cot (Welshpool: Dolpebyll Studio Press, 2015)
Shani Rhys James, Edward Lucie-Smith, and Francesca Rhydderch, The Rivalry of Flowers : Shani Rhys James (Bridgend, Wales: Seren, 2013)
Shani Rhys James: Two Ateliers (London: Connaught Brown, 2009)
Edward Lucie-Smith, Geraint Talfan Davies, and Eve Ropek, Shani Rhys James: the Black Cot (Aberystwyth: Aberystwyth Arts Centre, 2004)

Related organisations

Loughborough College of Art and Design (student)
Saint Martin's School of Art (student)
Wrexham Glyndŵr University (Honorary Fellow)

Selected exhibitions

Shani Rhys James, States of Mind, Connaught Brown, London (2024)
Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Prize, The Atkinson, Southport (2023)
Shani Rhys James at 70, Connaught Brown, London (2023)
Me, Myself, I: Artists' Self-Portraits, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol (2022)
Women’s Art in Wales, A Personal View (curated by Jill Piercy), Museum of Modern Art, Machynlleth (2021)
Hunan-Ynysu: Self Island, Connaught Brown, London (2021)
Tea on the Sofa, Blood on the Carpet, Wolfson Gallery, Charleston, Sussex (2020)
Dear Christine, Vane Gallery, Newcastle; Elysium Gallery, Swansea; Arthouse1, Bermondsey, London (2019–20)
I Paint Therefore I Am, Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff, Wales (2017)
Distillation, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, Wales (2015)
Home, Dean Clough, Halifax, Yorkshire (2014)
Shani Rhys James, Oriel Tegfryn, Menai Bridge, Anglesey (2014)
Florilingua in Rivalry of Flowers, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Wales (2013–2014)
Two Ateliers, Connaught Brown, London (2009)
Layers, Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff, Wales (2005)
The Black Cot, Aberystwyth Arts Centre touring exhibition (2004)
The Inner Room, Stephen Lacey Gallery, London (2000)
Facing the Self, Mostyn Art Gallery, Llandudno, Wales (1997)
Re-Vision, Fettered Past, Midlands Art Centre, Birmingham (1996)
Blood Ties, Wrexham Library Arts Centre, touring exhibition (1993)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Shani Rhys James]

Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.

Shani Rhys James artist