Roshan James (she/her) is a Tibetan-Indian multidisciplinary artist, poet, and musician born in Scarborough, Ontario, living as a settler in the rural area north of Waterloo, Ontario. Roshan’s process involves research and experimentation, resulting in work that connects with themes of decolonization, identity, time, purpose, memory, and healing. Roshan studied at Queen's University and the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto, and she holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from York University, summa cum laude. You'll find her on social media, most active on Instagram at @roshan_james.

My primary goal is to make art for community and public spaces to shape a more inclusive, compassionate world. I am currently focused on questions about identity, time, origin, cosmology, and entanglement.

My current studio practice involves creating large-scale, mixed media canvas work (larger than 5x5 feet). I experiment with deconstruction, balance, bold colours, textures, and simple, upcycled material. Through dramatic proportions and playful pairing of media, I tell visual stories about my lived experience and everything that I’m processing related to social justice. My sense of wonder, curiosity, and connection to nature are easily discernible in my artwork, and this is a way of reminding myself and others that life here on Earth is small and temporary, but we are so much more. We are infinite energy embodied in everyday places, people, and things.

Similarly, through poetry, I play with words, phrasing, and simple juxtapositions to turn old ideas on their side. In music, I incorporate different textures of analog and digital sound to create meaning from chaos, producing ethereal soundscapes. In both poetry and music, I mix styles from lyric poetry to street style for a unique sound that is relaxing and grounded, with rhythm and energy that evokes ancestral connection.