James Godwin is a Brooklyn NY based artist and puppeteer whose paintings, drawings, performances and sculptures inhabit a world where psychology, surrealism, and the occult intertwine. Godwin’s creative vision is that of a modern day shaman — crafting work that is as beautiful as it is uncanny; daring to peer into the deeper, stranger recesses of the human experience.

At the heart of Godwin’s practice are marionettes: figures carved in wood, and etched with the full spectrum of human emotion. With a delicate tilt of the head, hollow, haunted eyes, and mouths poised to speak, they pull us into their internal stories; and somewhere within their vulnerability and pathos, we recognise ourselves.

Practicing since the 1980s in New York City, Godwin is a founding member of the Elementals Puppet Company and Uncle Jimmy's Basement, with work presented at PS 122, Dixon Place, La MaMa, and the Walker Art Center. Recent productions Flatiron Hex and Lunatic Cunning have played Dixon Place and the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. A cast member of Jim Henson Alternative's off-Broadway Stuffed and Unstrung, he has also collaborated with Julie Taymor, Dave Chappelle, David Bowie, and Aerosmith, with screen credits including Saturday Night Live, High Maintenance,The Daily Show, Ice Age 2, I Sell the Dead, and PBS's It's a Big, Big World.

Artist Statement

"I am a storyteller. I engage with my imagination to gain access to the things that interest me. I think with my hands. I make things and they begin to respond. Then we make connections and corrections. Happy accidents combined with technical processes. Narratives emerge and weave into each other in surprising ways. Animism underneath it all. Eventually it’s time to share this with others so that the stories can grow beyond my little hut."