Alexandra James is a sculptor, metal fabricator, and educator from Summerland, California. Her practice is rooted in a lifelong relationship with the nature and industrial materials that sometimes shape it.
She earned an A.A. in Fine Art from Santa Barbara City College before completing a B.F.A. in Fine Art with a minor and certification in Visual and Performing Arts Education at UCLA in 2021. She is currently pursuing an M.F.A. at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena.
Working across steel, clay, wood, scavenged man-made and foraged natural materials, James investigates the relationship between the built and natural worlds. Her sculptures exist somewhere between artifact and organism, often blurring the line between utility and fiction. Drawing from years of professional experience as an architectural metal fabricator under Jeff Shelton, she combines industrial fabrication techniques with intuitive, hand-built processes to create work that feels simultaneously engineered and unearthed.
Research, observation, and direct engagement with place are central to her practice. Whether hiking through deserts, collecting weathered materials along the California coast, or studying geological formations, James approaches making as a conversation with the environment. Themes of ecology, transformation, resilience, and human intervention emerge through forms that reference imagined species, speculative futures, and evolving ecosystems. Rather than offering fixed conclusions, her work invites viewers to consider how humans shape and are shaped by the landscapes they inhabit.
Alongside her studio practice, James has taught ceramics at Santa Barbara City College and art education at local organizations, viewing teaching as an extension of her artistic practice and a way to cultivate curiosity, technical skill, and creative confidence in others.
All artwork featured on this website is original.
For artwork inquiries, commissions, exhibitions, teaching portfolio requests, or AJ805Art orders, please get in touch through the contact page.
CVEducationM.F.A. Candidate, ArtCenter College of Design (2026–Present)
B.A. in Art, University of California, Los Angeles (2021)
A.A. in Fine Art, Santa Barbara City College (2019)Current RolesCeramics Instructor, Santa Barbara City College
Welder & Fabrication Manager, Isaac Ornamental Metal
Owner & Artist, AJ805ArtSelected Exhibitions2025 — Same Same But Different, Lake Perris, CA
2024 — My Friends and I, Casa de la Raza, Santa Barbara, CA
2023 — Ready to Hang, Community Arts Workshop, Santa Barbara, CA
2022 — Unite to Light, Community Arts Workshop, Santa Barbara, CA
2022 — COVID Memorial, Santa Barbara City College, Santa Barbara, CAGrants2025 — COVID Memorial Grant, Santa Barbara City College
2022 — Unite to Light Grant, The Fund for Santa BarbaraPublications2025 — Santa Barbara Independent, "Overjoyed About the New Undercrossing"
2023 — Carpinteria Magazine, "Ally's Metal Meditations"