James Nepaulsingh
(b. Staffordshire) is a British painter based between London and Tokyo.
A recent graduate of the Royal College of Art MA in Painting and shortlisted for the Cass Art Prize 2026, Nepaulsingh creates large-scale oil paintings that examine cultural distance, memory, and structural tension. His practice is defined by heavily layered, tactile surfaces where archival imagery and intricate patterns repeatedly surface and recede. Synthesising disparate influences — from historical archives to contemporary calypso and techno — his work deliberately disrupts traditional painting methods to challenge classical notions of pictorial purity.
‘Meditation’ (2026)
W 152.5 cm x H 102 cm
Oil on Canvas
‘Hugging’ (2026)
W 200 cm x H 160 cm
Oil on Canvas
‘Chair’ (2026)
W 180 cm x H 200 cm
Oil on Canvas
‘I Wish You The Very Best’ (2026)
W 90 cm x H 122 cm
Oil on Canvas
CV
JAMES NEPAULSINGH
b. Staffordshire, UK. Lives and works in London and Tokyo.
EDUCATION
2026 | MA Painting, Royal College of Art, London
2022 | Graduate Diploma in Art & Design (Distinction), Royal College of Art, London
2020 | Painting and Drawing Summer School, Slade School of Fine Art, London
2002 | BA; MA English Language and Literature, Keble College, University of Oxford
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
2026 | Shortlisted, The Cass Art Prize
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2026 | Salon 0502, Old Waiting Room, Peckham Rye Station, London — Organiser
2025 | Nepo's Rorschach, ATeDo, Tokyo
2024 | Obon Art Night, Zaisyohousekoide & Joanji Temple, Nagoya
2023 | All of Me, Mugen Gallery, Tokyo
2023 | More Than Art, Earth, Tokyo
2023 | Artefacts, ATeDo, Tokyo
2022 | Transcriptions, Atari, Tokyo
2022 | Art and Law, The National Gallery, London
2022 | Cast A Shadow, The Safehouses, London
2020 | Locked, ATeDo, Tokyo