James Isherwood

Seizan Gallery is pleased to present James Isherwood: Holding Pattern. Coinciding with his first presentation in Asia at Seizan Tokyo, the exhibition features fifteen new acrylic-on-panel paintings created for the show.

Working in an intimate format, with meticulous brushwork and layers of almost delirious color, Isherwood continues to explore the relationship between space and perception through carefully constructed compositions. His paintings examine how familiar forms drawn from architecture, nature, landscape, and geometric abstraction can shift into strange, ambiguous environments, occupying a space between memory, imagination, and physical reality.

In the new body of work, Isherwood turns to what could be aerial views or outer space: satellites, moons, and abstract forms that might belong in a sci-fi film, drifting through star-filled skies in uncanny hues. Shapes appear to move, separate, and reconnect, creating a visual tension between the stability and fluidity of perception. Of the works with cream-yellow backgrounds, the artist states, “They are particle fields that serve as the in-between spaces of physical and metaphoric energy. A holding pattern can last for an unknown length of time. It can be unbound in a perpetual state of waiting until a decision arrives. Within these paintings, an uncanny sense of dormant and palpable unease feels ready to be unbound.”

James Isherwood (b. 1971, Boston, MA) holds a BFA from Parsons and lives in Brooklyn, NY. His most recent solo exhibitions include Seizan Gallery New York (2026), Seizan Gallery Tokyo (2026), Susan Eley Fine Art (2022), and Galeria Ana Serratosa in Valencia (2021). He has received fellowships from the Constance Saltonstall Foundation, Willapa Bay AiR, and VCCA, and his work is held in the U.S. Department of State Art Bank and various private collections.