![](images/slide show/Cami James - TO BE HELD, Stoneware, stainless steel piercings and glaze, 2023, 21" x 14" x 9".jpg)
, Stoneware, glaze, hi-temp wire, sterling silver charms and piercings,15in x 10in x 8in.jpg)
This page is still being built — more work will be added here soon.
Artist index — all acquired works
Artistblock
The Artist Block is a full-stack AI-powered web application built at artistblock.art, designed to help visual artists overcome creative block by generating personalised creative briefs on demand.
The product takes a user's chosen medium, mood and aesthetic as inputs — or a free-text description of a half-formed idea — and uses the Anthropic Claude API to generate a complete creative direction: a specific art prompt, curated colour palette, artist references drawn from art history, film director recommendations, a music mood, poetry and a supplemental reading list, with real book covers fetched dynamically from the Google Books API.
The application is built as a single-page HTML/CSS/JavaScript application with no frontend framework, deployed via Netlify with a suite of serverless Node.js functions handling API orchestration, image proxying, and database operations. Reference images are sourced in real time from Unsplash, Pexels, and institutional museum APIs including the Tate, MoMA and Harvard Art Museums.
User briefs are persisted to a Supabase PostgreSQL database with row-level security, and the subscription and licensing layer is handled through Gumroad with custom order verification logic. The app includes a context-aware AI mentor chat interface — built on the same Claude API — that allows subscribers to have a freeform conversation about their generated brief, with the full board context passed as a system prompt so the AI can answer specific questions about palette choices, artist references and creative direction.
Additional infrastructure includes an SEO blog with automated article publishing via a scheduled Claude agent, Google Search Console integration with a structured sitemap, Open Graph and JSON-LD metadata, Pinterest and Reddit conversion tracking pixels, and a YouTube API integration for surfacing relevant educational video content alongside each brief.
Camilla James is an Australian-born artist based in New York, working in sculpture, ceramics, and mixed media. Her practice centres on the female body as a site of cultural inscription — examining how women's physicality, freedom, and relationships have been historically contained, adorned, and defined by forces outside themselves. Working primarily in hand-built stoneware, James constructs figurative forms layered with ceramic chains, belts, piercings, and found hardware, collapsing the language of restraint and ornamentation into objects that are simultaneously confrontational and seductive.
James holds a Bachelor of Design (Fashion) with First Class Honours from RMIT University, Melbourne, and is the co-founder and co-designer of Discount Universe and SeaQueen Swim, whose work has been acquired for the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, and the Art Gallery of South Australia. Her fine art practice has been exhibited internationally, including at Material Art Fair (Zona Maco, Mexico City), Museum of Sex (New York), Sculpture Space (New York), CUE Gallery (New York), and Apto Galeria (Guadalajara). In 2024–25 she completed a residency at Cerámica Suro, Guadalajara. As a queer artist, she is currently developing a new body of work examining the historical suppression of female bonds and their radical persistence.
Education
Bachelor of Design (Fashion), First Class Honours
RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, 2006–2009
Wheel Throwing Pottery, Greenwich House Pottery, New York, 2021
Hand Building Sculpture, Estudio Matope, CDMX, Mexico, 2022
Experience
Co-Founder / Director / Designer, Discount Universe, 2009–2026
Co-Founder / Director / Designer, SeaQueen Swim, 2017–2026
Sessional Lecturer + Panel Adjudicator, RMIT University, 2013 + 2021
Shows
Artsy The Pride Edition: 'Camp & Curious' Viewing Room, June 5 – July 10, 2026
CUE Gallery, NYC — Mãdar: Iran Relief Exhibition, May 15, 2026
Apto Galeria, Guadalajara, Mexico — Los Cuentos Que se Cuentan, May 15, 2026
Sculpture Space NYC — For Use, May 16, 2026
Material Art Fair (Zona Maco), CDMX, Mexico, February 2025
Ceramica Suro, Guadalajara, Mexico — Annual Exhibition Gala, February 2025
Museum of Sex, Group Show, Bond Hardware, 2024
Sculpture Space NYC — For Use, May 18, 2024
Residencies
Ceramica Suro Residency, October 2024 – February 2025
Recognition
Know My Name — National Gallery of Australia, November 2020 – May 2021
Exhibition celebrating women artists. 10 full runway looks from 2018 WOMAN show.
200 Years of Australian Fashion — National Gallery of Victoria, 2016
Custom ballet slipper auction — National Australian Ballet, 2015
Sessional Lecturer — RMIT University, 2013
Taught 140 first-year Bachelor of Design (Fashion) students.
Museum Acquisitions
National Gallery of Australia, May 2020
10 full looks from Discount Universe NYFW Collection WOMAN, acquired for permanent collection.
National Gallery of Victoria, June 2016
Discount Universe pieces acquired for permanent collection; commissioned replica of 2015 VFILES Runway closing look.
Art Gallery of South Australia, June 2016
Discount Universe pieces acquired for permanent collection; commissioned replica of opening runway look from 2016 MBFWA Show.
National Gallery of Victoria, April 2015
Discount Universe pieces acquired for permanent collection; commissioned replica of 2014 runway bodysuit.
Press
Sydney Morning Herald — Know My Name, 2020
Sydney Morning Herald — 200 Years of Australian Fashion, 2016