Words by: Max Bengtsson
Images by: Sam Wong
New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based artist James Lemon has developed a distinctive practice within the ceramic world.
While ceramics is his most confident medium, his work extends across multiple forms — always expressive, playful, and colour-driven.
His pieces have been featured in institutions such as the NGV and the Heide Museum of Modern Art.
Check out James’ colour picks
Conversation with James Lemon
Chatting with James was an absolute delight.
We explored his creative process, the confidence that develops over time, and how his Colourful Language project helped bring his work into a studio installation context.
James has always been creative, with early interests in music shaping his understanding of process, rejection, and emotional resilience in creative industries.
These early experiences taught him how to separate emotion from output and continue creating despite setbacks.
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The biggest creative killer is insecurity. And unfortunately, in those [creative] industries, I think it's very easy to be insecure. So it's kind of going into it already fighting an uphill battle.
Through these experiences, James developed a sense of creative freedom — returning to a more instinctive, playful approach to making.
His Colourful Language project reflects this mindset, especially in his painted plinth works that function as artworks in their own right.
He describes his process as energetic and intuitive — inspired by childhood creativity, movement, and immediacy rather than overthinking.
Recent inspirations include space and nature documentaries, reflected in his use of primaries, UV tones, yellows, blues, and planetary forms.
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I went into this with a young boy’s mindset, and I'm trying to look at the world with this mindset and paint with it as well.
James also explores painting and glazing in private, using these mediums as experimental spaces outside of his public ceramic practice.
He sees all his work — video, ceramic, steel, or painting — as extensions of his creative identity at different moments in time.
He is committed to maintaining a studio environment where experimentation is free from constraint — allowing for large-scale, expressive work that challenges conventions within ceramics.
This freedom has become central to his practice, enabling him to fully own his style.
James works from his studio in Northcote, where he produces ceramics, sculptures, plinths, and experimental objects.
You can visit him at:
41 Arthurton Road, Northcote
(once lockdown restrictions allow)
Follow James on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jameslemon/
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