Jim Watt: 20 Watts

Red Yellow Blue

Fall 2020

Jim Watt (b. 1968) is an American artist and architect based in New Jersey. Watt's paintings and drawings are an obsessive exploration of space, form, and material, a context that marries his work as a practicing architect. At Princeton University, where Watt earned his M.A. in Architecture, teachers Michael Graves and Enrique Miralles espoused the Renaissance notion that architects must paint, draw, and sculpt to fully realize their ideas. Form, space, material, texture, color, and light are shared languages that transcend medium. Watt's work as an artist is the opportunity to work without a structured, planned intention, instead playing on the tension between thought and instinct: discovery through the process of making. Watt has a body of built buildings spanning North America, and his art is in private collections across North America and Europe. His work has been featured in Dwell Magazine and The New York Times.