James Buckhouse believes story, art, and design can bend the arc of humanity’s progress, if you do it right, and brings that idea into everything he does: from movies to startups to paintings to books and to ballets.
As an artist, he has exhibited at the Whitney Biennial, the Solomon R. Guggenheim’s Works & Process Series, The Institute of Contemporary Art in London, The Berkeley Art Museum, and the Dia Center. He has collaborated with leading choreographers at the New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, LA Dance Project, Oregon Ballet Theatre, and Pennsylvania Ballet.
As Design Partner at Sequoia, James Buckhouse works with founders from idea to IPO and beyond to help them design their companies, products, cultures, and businesses. Buckhouse got his start in film, lensing shots, crafting character arcs, and punching up story for some of the biggest film franchises, including the Shrek, Madagascar, and Matrix series. Today he is a sought-after writer and collaborator for some of Hollywood’s most creative producers and directors.
Buckhouse regularly guest lectures at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Yale School of Architecture, Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, and Stanford’s d.school. Prior to joining Sequoia in 2014, he was the Senior Experience Architect at Twitter, with patents for single-tap emoji replies, opinion polls on social, and more once-novel interactions that are now commonplace. He has a B.A. in Visual Art from Brown University.
SELECTED PROJECTS AND EXHIBTIONS
LAN JAENICKE COLLAB 2024
Satin Organza prints in collaboration with Lan Jaenicke
CARMEN 2023
Story Development, LA, Paris, with Benjamin Millepied
SENSORIUM 2019
SF Ballet, San Francisco, CA USA
SOUNDBOX 2019
SF Symphony, San Francisco, CA USA
HOMEWARD 2019
Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris
SOUNDBOX, SF Symphony, San Francisco
HOMEWARD 2018
LA DANCE PROJECT GALA, Hauser & Wirth
SENSORIUM 2017
San Francisco Ballet, 2017
SENSORIUM 2016
San Francisco Ballet, 2016
SENSORIUM 2015
San Francisco Ballet, 2015
SIZE MATTERS - Group Show
Walter Maciel Gallery Los Angeles, CA 2011
JAMES BUCKHOUSE: SERG RIVA
UC Berkeley Art Museum/PFA Berkeley, CA 2010
DAY FOR NIGHT
Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2009
Viewing Program - Artist Registry
The Drawing Center New York, NY 2008
Friends and Strangers - Pulse Art Fair
Walter Maciel Gallery, Miami, FL 2008
That Same Deep Water - Pulse Art Fair
Walter Maciel Gallery, Miami, FL 2008
FRIENDS AND STRANGERS
Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2008
JAMES BUCKHOUSE WESTERN MYTHOLOGY
Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2006
As Good as Your Next Gig - Group Show
Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2006
PICA - POOLSIDE
Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, OR 2005
Check in, Check Out - Poolside
Scope Art Fair, GenArt Miami, 2004
The Infinite Fill Show - Infinite Fill Paintings
Foxy Production, 547 WEST 27 ST, New York, NY, 2004
New Fangle - Poolside
GenArt, San Francisco, CA 2004
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN - FOUR SEASONS
Public Art Commission, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2004-2005
Digital Art in Public Spaces - Tap
Harvard University, Boston University, UrbanArts Institute, 2003
WHITNEY BIENNIAL
Whitney Museum of American Art, Tap, 2002
SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, WORKS & PRCOESS
Sculpting Music, with Christopher Wheeldon. 2002
Institute of Contemporary Art, London, England, Tap, 2002
Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, SNAPSHOT, 2002
Dia Center for the Arts, Tap, 2002
Creative Time, Tap, 2002
Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts
Refresh: The Art of the Screen Saver, 2000. Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
WHO MURDERED REALITY?
Mill and Short gallery, San Francisco, CA 1999
100 PAINTINGS AND 1 VIDEO
Mill and Short gallery, San Francisco, CA 1999
PROJECT PAINTINGS
Ebert Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1999
LANDSCAPE INTERFACE
Mill and Short gallery, San Francisco, CA 1998
PONG FESTIVAL OF MEDIA ART, Welcome to the Virtual Community
Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design, Providence RI 1996
SITINGS
Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art
In Front of the Rear Window with Andrew Kossow, 1995
SELECTED PRESS
Dance avec la plume, Jan 31, 2019
Mordernite Assumee, Jan 30, 2019
LADP in Paris, Jan 30, 2019
What Design Thinking is Doing for Opera, Harard Business Review, June 3, 2016
In Over Your Head, New York Times, Andy Port. August, 31, 2010.
James Buckhouse, DailyServing, by Allison Gibson, Feb 2009.
MODELS 306090 by Emily Abruzzo (Editor), Eric Ellingsen (Editor), Jonathan D. Solomo (Editor), November, 2007.
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The Night Christopher Wheeldon Met Oscar Wilde New York Times, Jennifer Dunning, June 11, 2007
Creative Time: The Book by Anne Pasternak (Author), Ruth A. Peltason (Editor), Lucy Lippard (Preface)
Princeton Architectural Press; 1 edition (April 19, 2007).
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New Media Art, Mark Tribe and Reena Jana, Taschen, 2006 ISBN 3-8228-3041-0
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Rain is the muse for new OBT work, Portland Tribune, Eric Bartels , Feb 25, 2005
Swan Lake Moves Inside, Décor by Degas, New York Times, Anna Kisslegoff, June 8, 2004
Wired for Art, Boston Globe, Cate McQuaid, April 25, 2003
Digital Art, Christiane Paul, 2003, Thames & Hudson, 2003 ISBN 0-500-20367-9
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A return To Form, Dale Eastman, Elle Magazine, July 2002
Game Art, Suhjung Hur, Wolganmisool (Korea), April 2002
New 'Smart' Galleries, Wireless and Web-Friendly, Karen Jones, New York Times, April 24, 2002
Tap Into the Techno Age, Judith Flanders, Evening Standard (London), September 26, 2002
Whitney Biennial Strong in Bay Area Artists, Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, April 04, 2002
Whitney Biennial Reaches out, connects with viewers, John Carlos Villani, Arizona Rebuplic, March 17, 2002
Catalog for the 2002 Whitney Biennial Exhibition, Lawrence Rinder, 2002, ISBN: 0810968320
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'Tap' into art for a Palm, Janet Kornblum, USA Today, Mar. 07 2002
Now, Dancing Art, Paula Vogel, New York Times, Feb. 22, 2002
Tribal Counsel, ArtForum, by Nico Isreal, Jan. 2002
Driven by a Higher Calling, Not Dot.Com Dollars, by Matthew Maripaul, New York Times, Dec.14, 2001
2002 Biennial Exhibition, By Matthew Mirapaul, New York Times, December 24, 2001
Hotlist, by Chris Finley , ARTFORUM, May, 2001
Screen Savers as Artists' Medium, by Matthew Maripaul, New York Times, Nov.23, 2000
Screen Saver Exhibit Creates Movable Feasts, by Jack Fischer, San Jose Mercury News, Nov.5, 2000
When Flying Toasters Were Art, by Jordan Lite, Wired News, Nov.4, 2000
LECTURES
Agentic Design, Pentagram 2024
Augmented Imagination, RISD 2024
Outsider Insight, Stanford 2023
Augmented Imagination, AI Ascent 2023
Story Strucutre, Harvard GSD 2022
Start with Story, d.school at Stanford 2021
Story-Driven Design, Layers.is 2019
Sensorium at the SFBallet, 2017
#DesignStory Stanford 2015
#DrawTogether, San Francisco, 2015
Towards A Social Art, San Frsncisco 2014
Sensorium at the SFBallet, 2015
University of California, Berkeley Advanced Painting, 2009
Architectual League, On Models, 2008
Stanford University, Digital Cinematography, 2007
Jacob's Pillow, Pillow Talks 2005
Oregon Ballet Theatre, Dance Talks, 2005
Harvard University, Boston University, UrbanArts Institute, Digital Art in Public Spaces 2003
San Francisco Art Institute, 2003
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Works & Process June 2002
New York University ITP, March 2002
The New School - Parsons, March 2002
Siggraph Educators Panel, New Orleans, LA 2000
Attraction/Distraction: Perceptual Conditions of Media Art, Stanford University 2000
San Francisco Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA 1999
Stanford University Department of Art and Art History, 1998, 1999, 2001
University of Washington Departments of Art and Computer Science 1998