James Bates biography in Biographies from the artzine on artrepublic.com

James started creating screenprints at school, then art college, as well as experimenting with stencil work in the late 80's early 90's.

His inspirations come from Paris street art, the Bauhaus, Picasso, Cubism, Pop Art and post impressionism to name but a few.  His discovery of the artist Kurt Schwitters lead him to his obsessive collecting of ephemera and scrap/sketchbooks.  In the end James says 'I'm probably inspired by everything so this is just become a shopping list… A strange love affair between swiss modernism and urban decay don't think that'll catch on...'

In the 1990's he worked at Me Company alongside Jon Link (Modern Toss) and Michael C Place (Designers Republic, Build).

James has created animated works for the BBC and Addidas, and website designs for the BBC and H&M. He has also created tour visuals, artwork, promotional items and screenprint for collaboration between Tunng and African nomads Tinariwen and collaborated on record sleeve designs with Anthony Micallef for Mighty Mouse & Disco Circus Sleeves.