James Pinker is a composer, musician, visual and sound artist and curator.
With a background in fine arts, music production and sound design and having completed post graduate studies at the University of Auckland Elam School of Fine Art, James has also been a gallery manager and a lecturer in sound art/moving image.
As a musician James has collaborated with Michael Brook, Dead Can Dance, SPK and has performed and recorded with Nusrat Ali Khan and assisted on installation projects with Brian Eno. He is also currently a member of The Holiwater Project, a collaboration with Indian classical musicians. Pinker has also produced music for jazz composer Nathan Haines, worked on sessions with The Pogues, OMC, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Sisters Underground and many more. More recently he has completed a score for Groundloop, Sydney Modern (Aus) and is currently composing new material for his debut solo album with collaborators such as Tom Bailey and Neil Finn.
As a visual artist he has exhibited video and photography internationally including Cambridge Anthropology Museum (UK), Museum of Brisbane and University of New South Wales (Aus).
As a freelance arts project manager and curator, he has worked with a list of artists that includes Emory Douglas, ITWÉ Collective, Billy Apple, Lonnie Hutchinson, Shigeyuki Kihara and most notably with Māori visual artist Lisa Reihana in collaboration with events such as the Venice Biennial 2017, APT Queensland Art Gallery, Taiwan Biennale, Sydney Biennale and Festival of the Arts, Auckland Triennial and Havana Biennale, Cuba.
His project installations have seen him working across institutions such as the Royal Academy (UK), Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, Len Lye Centre, Te Papa Tongarewa Museum, Auckland Art Gallery (NZ) and the Art Gallery of New South Wales (Aus).