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Paula MacArthur (b. 1967, Enfield) is a painter based in Rye, East Sussex.
My work centres on precious stones; for me, crystals encapsulate love, life, the universe and perhaps even everything. My paintings are explorations and celebrations of colour and light, and I see them as a contemporary response to Dutch 17th-century Pronkstilleven; ostentatious still lifes, that invite us to consider the transience of life, the emptiness of wealth and the certainty of death. The otherworldliness of these glassy, geometric forms sparks infinite imaginings; in oil paint, I find an equivalent magic and use luminous colour to create intricate landscapes and new, unreachable worlds. These are metaphors for the fragility of the planet we inhabit, the human condition, and also a recognition of the potential joy in the present moment. Encapsulated within a single object, we find our desire to accumulate treasures, tokens of love, displays of wealth and an understanding of our own and our planet's fragility and ultimate demise. I find these treasures in museums. I own very few crystals; I feel they should remain underground, although their luminosity is only revealed once they're brought into the light. This is just one of the many contradictions I hope to resolve within each painting; the light cannot be seen without the shadows. This idea is both literal and metaphorical; the beauty of these stones is undermined by the darker associations they conjure. My aim is to find some resolution, like yin and yang, between these two opposing forces. Throughout life, we experience good and bad, pleasure and pain, joy and sadness. I hope these paintings offer the viewer a moment to pause, contemplate and find a place of peace. |
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In 2024, Paula won Matthew Burrows’ Judge’s Choice Award at the Jackson's Art Prize with her painting ‘When nothing else remains’. In 1993 she was a prizewinner at the John Moores Painting Prize and she won the JPS Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery in 1989.
Recent exhibition highlights include 'Arcadia for All. Rethinking Landscape Painting Now' where her work was exhibited alongside Hurvin Anderson, Lubaina Himid, Phoebe Unwin and George Shaw. In 2023 Paula's work was part of ‘Entwined, Plants in Contemporary Painting’ touring Huddersfield Art Gallery and 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Lincolnshire.
Earlier career highlights include 'In the Future' curated by Rosalind Davis at Collyer Bristow Gallery, ‘Made in Britain’ at the National Gallery in Gdańsk, Poland, ‘Contemporary Masters from Britain’ which toured four museums in China and ‘Slippery & Amorphous' which toured London & Brooklyn. Her work was selected by Richard Deacon for the Creekside Open in 2015 and in 2011 she was took part in the curatorial project 'What the Folk Say' at Compton Verney Warwickshire alongside Peter Blake, Sonia Boyce, Jeremy Deller, Susan Hiller and Mike Nelson. In 1994 she was part of the artist residency and exhibition 'Four Self-Portrait Artists' at Walker Art Gallery Liverpool and in 1993. As a student her work was included in the Young Contemporaries (now New Contemporaries) at Whitworth Art Gallery (1989) and on completing her studies at the Royal Academy Schools, her work travelled to Germany for a post-graduate show at the Grassimuseum in Leipzig.
Her work is held in private and public collections around the world including National Portrait Gallery London, Priseman Seabrook Collection, Baron & Baroness von Oppenheim and Jiangsu Art Museum in China and painter, Graham Crowley, included his essay on her work ‘Still Light’ in his book ‘I Don’t Like Art’.
Recent exhibition highlights include 'Arcadia for All. Rethinking Landscape Painting Now' where her work was exhibited alongside Hurvin Anderson, Lubaina Himid, Phoebe Unwin and George Shaw. In 2023 Paula's work was part of ‘Entwined, Plants in Contemporary Painting’ touring Huddersfield Art Gallery and 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Lincolnshire.
Earlier career highlights include 'In the Future' curated by Rosalind Davis at Collyer Bristow Gallery, ‘Made in Britain’ at the National Gallery in Gdańsk, Poland, ‘Contemporary Masters from Britain’ which toured four museums in China and ‘Slippery & Amorphous' which toured London & Brooklyn. Her work was selected by Richard Deacon for the Creekside Open in 2015 and in 2011 she was took part in the curatorial project 'What the Folk Say' at Compton Verney Warwickshire alongside Peter Blake, Sonia Boyce, Jeremy Deller, Susan Hiller and Mike Nelson. In 1994 she was part of the artist residency and exhibition 'Four Self-Portrait Artists' at Walker Art Gallery Liverpool and in 1993. As a student her work was included in the Young Contemporaries (now New Contemporaries) at Whitworth Art Gallery (1989) and on completing her studies at the Royal Academy Schools, her work travelled to Germany for a post-graduate show at the Grassimuseum in Leipzig.
Her work is held in private and public collections around the world including National Portrait Gallery London, Priseman Seabrook Collection, Baron & Baroness von Oppenheim and Jiangsu Art Museum in China and painter, Graham Crowley, included his essay on her work ‘Still Light’ in his book ‘I Don’t Like Art’.
Current and forthcoming exhibitions
50/100
Unit 1 Gallery Workshop
1 Bard Road, London W10 6TP
Private View Thursday June 19th, 2025 6-9pm
Exhibition continues, 11am - 5pm Tuesday - Saturday until 20th July
unit1gallery-workshop.com
Silent Disco curated by Graham Crowley
Private view 12 - 5 pm, Saturday 28 June
Open by appointment until 12th July
Greystone Industries
Greystone House, 87 High Street, Wickham Market, Suffolk, IP13 0RA
grahamcrowley.co.uk
Print Room
Private view 5.30 - 8pm, Friday 11 July
Exhibition continues 10am - 4pm Saturday 12th & Sunday 13th July
Rye Creative Centre, New Road, Rye TN31 7LS
ryecreativecentre.co.uk/
CV
Education
2015 Turps Art School, mentoring programme
1993 Royal Academy Schools, Post-Graduate Diploma, Fine Art Painting
1990 Loughborough College of Art and Design, BA Hons, Fine Art Painting
Solo exhibitions
2022 Still Light, Rye Art Gallery, East Sussex
2018 Verse: Inverse, Obverse, Converse, Reverse, Sevenoaks Kaleidoscope Gallery
2017 Resonance & Wonder, with songs by Tine Louise Kortermand, Rye Creative Centre
2014 Infinitely Precious Things, VJB Arts at 60 Threadneedle Street, London
Selected group exhibitions
2025 Darkness Visible, APT Gallery, London
2024 Jackson's Art Prize, Matthew Burrows Judge's Choice Award, Bankside Gallery, London
Slow Painting: Cultural Landscapes, Studio KIND, Barnstaple, Devon
50/50, Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop, London
Start with Something, featuring Louisa Chambers, Tim Ellis, Roisin Fogarty, Alex Hanna, Gareth Kemp, Paula MacArthur, Scott McCracken,
Jason Thompson, Suzy Willey and Neil Zakiewicz, Bridewell Studios and Gallery, Liverpool
Assembly, The Old Gym, Rye Creative Centre, New Road, Rye East Sussex TN31 7LS
2023 At Cross Purposes, book and touring exhibition curated by Dr Frances Woodley, Aberystwyth University Museum Gallery, Oriel Ynys Môn, Anglesey,
QSS Studios Gallery, Belfast, and Elysium Gallery, Swansea
The London Group Open 2023, Copeland Gallery, London
Of Lightness, Hermione Allsopp, Clare Chapman, Paula MacArthur & Perdita Sinclair, Blyth Gallery, Imperial College London
Arcadia for all? Rethinking landscape painting now, Attenborough Arts Centre, University of Leicester
Goddesses on Sea, Lido Stores, Margate
Paint Fiction, International Gallery of Contemporary Art, Anchorage, Alaska, USA
Arcadia for all? Rethinking landscape painting now, Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds
X, Ten Years of Contemporary British Painting, Newcastle Contemporary Art, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
At Cross Purposes, book and touring exhibition curated by Dr Frances Woodley,
Rogue Women 2, Rogue Artists’ Studios, Manchester
Entwined, Plants in Contemporary Painting, 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe
Embracement, online exhibition at Tin Man Art for International Women's Day
2022 Entwined, Plants in Contemporary Painting, Huddersfield Art Gallery
Winter Lights, an online exhibition at Tin Man Art
Love, Celebration and the Road Ahead curated by Hettie Judah, TJ Boulting, London
Once Upon an Instant, HTW, Berlin
Paint Edgy, The Ropewalk, Barton on Humber
Variations, Rye Creative Centre
A Generous Space 2, The New Art Gallery Walsall
Vitalistic Fantasies, Elysium Gallery, Swansea
Paradoxes, Quay Arts, Ryde, Isle of Wight
2021 A Generous Space, Hastings Contemporary
Roadside Picnic, PADA Gallery, Barreiro, Lisbon, Portugal
Supernature, Kaleidoscope Gallery, Sevenoaks
Human:Nature, Linden Hall Studio, Deal, Kent
Margins curated by Matthew Burrows MBE, Rye, East Sussex
This Year's Model, Studio 1.1, London
2020 Lockdown Interviews exhibition, The Cello Factory, London
Vitalistic Fantasies, The Cello Factory, London
Wells Art Contemporary, online exhibition
Beep Painting Prize, Elysium Gallery, Swansea
Yes/No, an online open studio exhibition by 31 members of the artist led group, Contemporary British Painting
2019 A Hand Stuffed Mattress curated by Karl Bielik, Terrace Gallery, London
Supernature curated by PaintLounge, The Auxiliary Project Space, Middlesbrough
Mountain Size curated by Gordon Dalton, Pineapple Black, Middlesbrough
Indoor Voices curated by Graham Crowley, Greystone Industries, Wickham Market, Suffolk
Made in Britain, National Museum, Gdańsk, Poland
Contemporary British Painting, The Hostry, Norwich
Im/material bodies, Sluice HQ touring to Rye Creative Centre
2018 New Painting, The Crypt, St Marylebone Parish Church, London
PaintLounge Berlin, Kühlhaus, Berlin
Subsumed, curated by Fiona Long, The Crypt, St Marylebone Parish Church, London
In the Future, curated by Rosalind Davis, Collyer Bristow Gallery Click here for the press release.
Beep Painting Prize, Swansea College of Art
Superstition, Project Space Wapping, London
PaintNorth, Lady Beck Project Space, Leeds
Five Sussex Artists, Devonshire Collective, Eastbourne, Izabela Brudkiewicz, Nikki Davidson Bowman, Jane King, Paula MacArthur & April Yasamee
Testcard P, The Crypt, St Marylebone Parish Church, London, NW1 5LT
2017 Contemporary Masters from Britain, 80 works selected from the Priseman Seabrook Collection of 21st Century British Painting
The Yantai Art Museum, Jiangsu Arts and Crafts Museum, Jiangsu Art Museum, and Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts Museum
Summer Salon, Lubomirov Angus-Hughes, London
Contemporary Masters from Britain, The Yantai Art Museum , Yantai, China
Highly Inflammable, The Crypt, St Mary in the Castle, Hastings
On the other side, recent works by New Road Artists, Rye Art Gallery
Contemporary British Painting Summer Exhibition, Art Bermondsey Project Space
Contemporary Masters from the East of England: 35 Painters from the East of England, The Cut, Halesworth, 25 April - 27 May
30x30x34, Contemporary British Painting Winter Exhibition, The Crypt, St Marylebone Church, London
2016 Slippery & Amorphous NYC, Sluice Exchange Rates International Exposition, ArtHelix, Brooklyn, NYC, downloadable catalogue here
Contemporary British Painting Summer Exhibition, Quay Arts, Ryde, Isle of Wight
Slippery & Amorphous The Crypt, St Marylebone Parish Church, London download catalogue
Correspond, The Artworks, 1830 Building, Shaw Lane, Halifax
touring to Rye Creative Centre, East Sussex and Interview Room 11, Edinburgh
This Year's Model, Studio 1.1, Shoreditch, London
2015 Right Here, Right Now, Rye Studio, East Sussex, Hermione Allsopp, Andrzej Jackowski, Chantal Joffe, Paula MacArthur, Dave McKean
Undead Painters, ASC Gallery, New Cross Gate, London, curated by Alastair Gordon and James Petrucci
Adam Fenton’s Painting Club, No Format Gallery, Woolwich
Creekside Open, APT Gallery, London, selected by Richard Deacon
Disturbance, Atom Gallery, Stroud Green Road, London
Cold on the Outside, Willowbank Crescent, Glasgow
2014 Red Xmas Studio 1.1 gallery, 57a Redchurch Street, Shoreditch, London
Q14 APT Gallery, Harold Wharf, 6 Creekside, Deptford, London
OVERHE(a)R(e), Aplomb Gallery, Chicago, USA
Le Voci Ritrovate, Castello di Monti, Corigliano d’Otranto, Italy
Zeitgeist Open ZAP, ASC Studios, London, selected by Rosalind Davies, Annabel Tilley, Andrew Bick & Juan Bolivar download the catalogue here
Correspond, Turps Art School, Taplow, London, curated by Marcus Harvey, Graham Carrick & Paula MacArthur read the review by Charley Peters
Off the Wall, The 9th Terrace Annual Open, London
Zeitgeist Summer Exhibition, Zeitgeist Arts Projects, London
20 Painters, Phoenix Brighton 10-14 Waterloo Place, Brighton download Painters' Painters essay by Maria Bonner
Crash Open Salon, Charlie Dutton Gallery, 1a Princeton Street, London, selected by Phillip Allen and Neil Tait
2013 Christmas BOGOF, WW Gallery, 34/35 Hatton Garden, London, EC1N 8DX
Lion and Lamb Gallery at Sluice Art Fair, Bermondsey, London
The Open West, Cheltenham Art Gallery
The Femail Project, The Article Gallery, Birmingham City University
Navigate, Bexhill Art Trail supported by the De La Warr Pavillion, The Old Cinema, Bexhill
The Open West, Newark Park Gloucestershire, review by Sunny Cheung
Covert and Obscured, Frances Bardsley Gallery, Romford
Tasty Modern, Schwartz Gallery, London watch the exhibition video here
2012 Seeing in the Dark, The Fletcher Centre, Rye, East Sussex
Minutiae, The Stone Space, London
ALAS Autumn Residency Exhibition, Matt Roberts Arts, Vyner Street, London
The Perfect Nude, touring to Wimbledon Space, Exeter Phoenix Gallery & Charlie Smith London, curated by Philip Allen and Dan Coombs
2011 What the Folk Say, curatorial interventions by Tasha Amini, James Ayres, Daniel Baker, Sir Peter Blake, Sonia Boyce, Faye Claridge, Simon Costin, Jeremy Deller, Susan Hiller, Juneau Projects, Alan Kane, Paula MacArthur, Mike Nelson, Martin Myrone, Paul Ryan and Sarah Woodfine,
Compton Verney, Warwickshire
Surface Meaning, Jillian Eldridge, Ben Fenton, Paula MacArthur & Nikki Tompsett, House of Hastings, East Sussex
2010 A Thousand Words; an installation for Art in Romney Marsh, St. Nicholas’ Church
London Festival Fringe Art Award, Covent Garden
2005 Ahoy Kunst Event, Rotterdam, Netherlands
1994 Four Self Portrait Artists, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
1993 Prize winner, John Moores 18, Walker Art gallery, Liverpool
Royal Academy Post-Graduates, Grassimuseum, Leipzig, Germany
1991-3 Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, London
1989 Young Contemporaries, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
First Prize Winner, John Player Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery
Residencies and collaborations
2021 PADA artist residency, Barreiro, near Lisbon Portugal
2018 Project based residency, Griffin Gallery, London
2017 Trelex Residency, Switzerland
2014 Le Voci Ritrovate, Castello di Monti, Corigliano d’Otranto, Italy supported by De La Warr Pavillion & Hastings Council
2014 Turps Art School Correspondents' Resisdency, Atelier Austmarka, Norway
2014 Brilliant Cut, Shift Dance Company & Paula MacArthur, performed at The Sinden Theatre, Tenterden & The Congress Theatre, Eastbourne
2012 ALAS Residency Matt Robert’s Arts, 25b Vyner Street, London
1994 Four Self Portrait Artists Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Publications
2023 Arcadia for All? Rethinking Landscape Painting Now, view catalogue online
X, Ten Years of Contemporary British Painting, 2023, ISBN 978 1 7397818 3 5, purchase a copy here
At Cross Purposes, introduction by Dr Frances Woodley and foreword by Bedwyr Williams, email to purchase
2022 Entwined, Plants in Contemporary Painting
Paint Edgy, view catalogue online
Vitalistic Fantasies, view catalogue online
Paradoxes, purchase online
2021 Darkness at Noon, view catalogue online
2019 Made in Britain, National Museum, Gdańsk, Poland, exhibition catalogue
Contemporary Masters of Britain, view exhibition catalogue here
2016 Slippery & Amorphous NYC, view exhibition catalogue here
Slippery & Amorphous London, view exhibition catalogue here
Correspond 2016 catalogue
Contemporary British Painting Summer Exhibition 2016, ISBN 9-781534-87-123 downloadable exhibition catalogue here
2015 I don’t like art, selected essays by Graham Crowley, 2015, view Graham Crowley's Still Light essay online
Infinitely Precious Things view the exhibition catalogue online
2014 Correspond exhibition catalogue, 2014, ISBN 978-0-9544296-5-2
Zeitgeist Open 2014, view the exhibition catalogue online
2013 The Open West 2013, exhibition catalogue
Pushing Print Festival 2012 exhibition catalogue
What the Folk Say exhibition catalogue, Compton Verney
The Importance of Sequences, Clinical Chemist, Marek H Dominiczak
Self, compiled by Craig Kerrecoe ISBN 978-1-907437-00-7
1993 John Moores Liverpool Exhibition 18, National Merseyside Galleries and Museum, ISBN 0-906367-66-2
Royal Academy Schools student exhibition, introduction by Norman Rosenthal
Painting Today, Bonhams, foreword by Nicholas Usherwood
1990 Ten years of the John Player Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery
Artist lectures and discussions
Arcadia for All? Rethinking Landscape Painting Now, University of Leeds, 2023
Paint Edgy, The Ropewalk, Barton on Humber, 2022
Vitalistic Fantasies, online talk for Elysium Gallery, Swansea, 2022
Beep Painting Prize, online talk for Elysium Gallery, Swansea, 2020
Lockdown online interview with Robert Dunt for Art Top Ten, 2020
Paint Hard symposium, The Northern School of Art, November 2019
Artist Lecture, University of Leeds, November 2019
In conversation with Anna McNay at Resonance & wonder, Rye Creative Centre, 3 June 2017
Guest speaker at De La Warr Pavilion Artists Crit Group May 2017
Norwich University for the Arts
De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill
Jerwood Gallery, Hastings, 2015
Glasgow Artist Guild, with Marvin Gaye Chetwynd for the Glasgow Open House Festival, 2015
Disturbance, curator and artist discussion for International Womens’ Day 2014
Seeing in the dark, curators talk, The Fletcher Centre, Rye
Ivon Hitchens in context, curator’s talk, Rye Art Gallery, East Sussex
Correspond, artists’ discussion, Turps Art School, London
John Moores Painting Biennial, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Awards
Jackson's Art Prize, Matthew Burrow's Judge's Choice Award
London Festival Fringe Art Award, second place
Prize winner, John Moores 18, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Royal Academy Schools Prize for Painting
First Prize Winner, John Player Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery
Selected Collections
Jiangsu Museum of Art - China
Goodnestone Park, Kent
Priseman Seabrook Collection
Chadwicks, UEA Campus, Norwich
National Portrait Gallery, London
Baron and Baroness von Oppenheim
Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors
Loughborough Grammar School
Ted Baker London
Double Tree Hilton Hotel, Park Lane, London
50/100
Unit 1 Gallery Workshop
1 Bard Road, London W10 6TP
Private View Thursday June 19th, 2025 6-9pm
Exhibition continues, 11am - 5pm Tuesday - Saturday until 20th July
unit1gallery-workshop.com
Silent Disco curated by Graham Crowley
Private view 12 - 5 pm, Saturday 28 June
Open by appointment until 12th July
Greystone Industries
Greystone House, 87 High Street, Wickham Market, Suffolk, IP13 0RA
grahamcrowley.co.uk
Print Room
Private view 5.30 - 8pm, Friday 11 July
Exhibition continues 10am - 4pm Saturday 12th & Sunday 13th July
Rye Creative Centre, New Road, Rye TN31 7LS
ryecreativecentre.co.uk/
CV
Education
2015 Turps Art School, mentoring programme
1993 Royal Academy Schools, Post-Graduate Diploma, Fine Art Painting
1990 Loughborough College of Art and Design, BA Hons, Fine Art Painting
Solo exhibitions
2022 Still Light, Rye Art Gallery, East Sussex
2018 Verse: Inverse, Obverse, Converse, Reverse, Sevenoaks Kaleidoscope Gallery
2017 Resonance & Wonder, with songs by Tine Louise Kortermand, Rye Creative Centre
2014 Infinitely Precious Things, VJB Arts at 60 Threadneedle Street, London
Selected group exhibitions
2025 Darkness Visible, APT Gallery, London
2024 Jackson's Art Prize, Matthew Burrows Judge's Choice Award, Bankside Gallery, London
Slow Painting: Cultural Landscapes, Studio KIND, Barnstaple, Devon
50/50, Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop, London
Start with Something, featuring Louisa Chambers, Tim Ellis, Roisin Fogarty, Alex Hanna, Gareth Kemp, Paula MacArthur, Scott McCracken,
Jason Thompson, Suzy Willey and Neil Zakiewicz, Bridewell Studios and Gallery, Liverpool
Assembly, The Old Gym, Rye Creative Centre, New Road, Rye East Sussex TN31 7LS
2023 At Cross Purposes, book and touring exhibition curated by Dr Frances Woodley, Aberystwyth University Museum Gallery, Oriel Ynys Môn, Anglesey,
QSS Studios Gallery, Belfast, and Elysium Gallery, Swansea
The London Group Open 2023, Copeland Gallery, London
Of Lightness, Hermione Allsopp, Clare Chapman, Paula MacArthur & Perdita Sinclair, Blyth Gallery, Imperial College London
Arcadia for all? Rethinking landscape painting now, Attenborough Arts Centre, University of Leicester
Goddesses on Sea, Lido Stores, Margate
Paint Fiction, International Gallery of Contemporary Art, Anchorage, Alaska, USA
Arcadia for all? Rethinking landscape painting now, Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds
X, Ten Years of Contemporary British Painting, Newcastle Contemporary Art, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
At Cross Purposes, book and touring exhibition curated by Dr Frances Woodley,
Rogue Women 2, Rogue Artists’ Studios, Manchester
Entwined, Plants in Contemporary Painting, 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe
Embracement, online exhibition at Tin Man Art for International Women's Day
2022 Entwined, Plants in Contemporary Painting, Huddersfield Art Gallery
Winter Lights, an online exhibition at Tin Man Art
Love, Celebration and the Road Ahead curated by Hettie Judah, TJ Boulting, London
Once Upon an Instant, HTW, Berlin
Paint Edgy, The Ropewalk, Barton on Humber
Variations, Rye Creative Centre
A Generous Space 2, The New Art Gallery Walsall
Vitalistic Fantasies, Elysium Gallery, Swansea
Paradoxes, Quay Arts, Ryde, Isle of Wight
2021 A Generous Space, Hastings Contemporary
Roadside Picnic, PADA Gallery, Barreiro, Lisbon, Portugal
Supernature, Kaleidoscope Gallery, Sevenoaks
Human:Nature, Linden Hall Studio, Deal, Kent
Margins curated by Matthew Burrows MBE, Rye, East Sussex
This Year's Model, Studio 1.1, London
2020 Lockdown Interviews exhibition, The Cello Factory, London
Vitalistic Fantasies, The Cello Factory, London
Wells Art Contemporary, online exhibition
Beep Painting Prize, Elysium Gallery, Swansea
Yes/No, an online open studio exhibition by 31 members of the artist led group, Contemporary British Painting
2019 A Hand Stuffed Mattress curated by Karl Bielik, Terrace Gallery, London
Supernature curated by PaintLounge, The Auxiliary Project Space, Middlesbrough
Mountain Size curated by Gordon Dalton, Pineapple Black, Middlesbrough
Indoor Voices curated by Graham Crowley, Greystone Industries, Wickham Market, Suffolk
Made in Britain, National Museum, Gdańsk, Poland
Contemporary British Painting, The Hostry, Norwich
Im/material bodies, Sluice HQ touring to Rye Creative Centre
2018 New Painting, The Crypt, St Marylebone Parish Church, London
PaintLounge Berlin, Kühlhaus, Berlin
Subsumed, curated by Fiona Long, The Crypt, St Marylebone Parish Church, London
In the Future, curated by Rosalind Davis, Collyer Bristow Gallery Click here for the press release.
Beep Painting Prize, Swansea College of Art
Superstition, Project Space Wapping, London
PaintNorth, Lady Beck Project Space, Leeds
Five Sussex Artists, Devonshire Collective, Eastbourne, Izabela Brudkiewicz, Nikki Davidson Bowman, Jane King, Paula MacArthur & April Yasamee
Testcard P, The Crypt, St Marylebone Parish Church, London, NW1 5LT
2017 Contemporary Masters from Britain, 80 works selected from the Priseman Seabrook Collection of 21st Century British Painting
The Yantai Art Museum, Jiangsu Arts and Crafts Museum, Jiangsu Art Museum, and Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts Museum
Summer Salon, Lubomirov Angus-Hughes, London
Contemporary Masters from Britain, The Yantai Art Museum , Yantai, China
Highly Inflammable, The Crypt, St Mary in the Castle, Hastings
On the other side, recent works by New Road Artists, Rye Art Gallery
Contemporary British Painting Summer Exhibition, Art Bermondsey Project Space
Contemporary Masters from the East of England: 35 Painters from the East of England, The Cut, Halesworth, 25 April - 27 May
30x30x34, Contemporary British Painting Winter Exhibition, The Crypt, St Marylebone Church, London
2016 Slippery & Amorphous NYC, Sluice Exchange Rates International Exposition, ArtHelix, Brooklyn, NYC, downloadable catalogue here
Contemporary British Painting Summer Exhibition, Quay Arts, Ryde, Isle of Wight
Slippery & Amorphous The Crypt, St Marylebone Parish Church, London download catalogue
Correspond, The Artworks, 1830 Building, Shaw Lane, Halifax
touring to Rye Creative Centre, East Sussex and Interview Room 11, Edinburgh
This Year's Model, Studio 1.1, Shoreditch, London
2015 Right Here, Right Now, Rye Studio, East Sussex, Hermione Allsopp, Andrzej Jackowski, Chantal Joffe, Paula MacArthur, Dave McKean
Undead Painters, ASC Gallery, New Cross Gate, London, curated by Alastair Gordon and James Petrucci
Adam Fenton’s Painting Club, No Format Gallery, Woolwich
Creekside Open, APT Gallery, London, selected by Richard Deacon
Disturbance, Atom Gallery, Stroud Green Road, London
Cold on the Outside, Willowbank Crescent, Glasgow
2014 Red Xmas Studio 1.1 gallery, 57a Redchurch Street, Shoreditch, London
Q14 APT Gallery, Harold Wharf, 6 Creekside, Deptford, London
OVERHE(a)R(e), Aplomb Gallery, Chicago, USA
Le Voci Ritrovate, Castello di Monti, Corigliano d’Otranto, Italy
Zeitgeist Open ZAP, ASC Studios, London, selected by Rosalind Davies, Annabel Tilley, Andrew Bick & Juan Bolivar download the catalogue here
Correspond, Turps Art School, Taplow, London, curated by Marcus Harvey, Graham Carrick & Paula MacArthur read the review by Charley Peters
Off the Wall, The 9th Terrace Annual Open, London
Zeitgeist Summer Exhibition, Zeitgeist Arts Projects, London
20 Painters, Phoenix Brighton 10-14 Waterloo Place, Brighton download Painters' Painters essay by Maria Bonner
Crash Open Salon, Charlie Dutton Gallery, 1a Princeton Street, London, selected by Phillip Allen and Neil Tait
2013 Christmas BOGOF, WW Gallery, 34/35 Hatton Garden, London, EC1N 8DX
Lion and Lamb Gallery at Sluice Art Fair, Bermondsey, London
The Open West, Cheltenham Art Gallery
The Femail Project, The Article Gallery, Birmingham City University
Navigate, Bexhill Art Trail supported by the De La Warr Pavillion, The Old Cinema, Bexhill
The Open West, Newark Park Gloucestershire, review by Sunny Cheung
Covert and Obscured, Frances Bardsley Gallery, Romford
Tasty Modern, Schwartz Gallery, London watch the exhibition video here
2012 Seeing in the Dark, The Fletcher Centre, Rye, East Sussex
Minutiae, The Stone Space, London
ALAS Autumn Residency Exhibition, Matt Roberts Arts, Vyner Street, London
The Perfect Nude, touring to Wimbledon Space, Exeter Phoenix Gallery & Charlie Smith London, curated by Philip Allen and Dan Coombs
2011 What the Folk Say, curatorial interventions by Tasha Amini, James Ayres, Daniel Baker, Sir Peter Blake, Sonia Boyce, Faye Claridge, Simon Costin, Jeremy Deller, Susan Hiller, Juneau Projects, Alan Kane, Paula MacArthur, Mike Nelson, Martin Myrone, Paul Ryan and Sarah Woodfine,
Compton Verney, Warwickshire
Surface Meaning, Jillian Eldridge, Ben Fenton, Paula MacArthur & Nikki Tompsett, House of Hastings, East Sussex
2010 A Thousand Words; an installation for Art in Romney Marsh, St. Nicholas’ Church
London Festival Fringe Art Award, Covent Garden
2005 Ahoy Kunst Event, Rotterdam, Netherlands
1994 Four Self Portrait Artists, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
1993 Prize winner, John Moores 18, Walker Art gallery, Liverpool
Royal Academy Post-Graduates, Grassimuseum, Leipzig, Germany
1991-3 Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, London
1989 Young Contemporaries, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
First Prize Winner, John Player Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery
Residencies and collaborations
2021 PADA artist residency, Barreiro, near Lisbon Portugal
2018 Project based residency, Griffin Gallery, London
2017 Trelex Residency, Switzerland
2014 Le Voci Ritrovate, Castello di Monti, Corigliano d’Otranto, Italy supported by De La Warr Pavillion & Hastings Council
2014 Turps Art School Correspondents' Resisdency, Atelier Austmarka, Norway
2014 Brilliant Cut, Shift Dance Company & Paula MacArthur, performed at The Sinden Theatre, Tenterden & The Congress Theatre, Eastbourne
2012 ALAS Residency Matt Robert’s Arts, 25b Vyner Street, London
1994 Four Self Portrait Artists Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Publications
2023 Arcadia for All? Rethinking Landscape Painting Now, view catalogue online
X, Ten Years of Contemporary British Painting, 2023, ISBN 978 1 7397818 3 5, purchase a copy here
At Cross Purposes, introduction by Dr Frances Woodley and foreword by Bedwyr Williams, email to purchase
2022 Entwined, Plants in Contemporary Painting
Paint Edgy, view catalogue online
Vitalistic Fantasies, view catalogue online
Paradoxes, purchase online
2021 Darkness at Noon, view catalogue online
2019 Made in Britain, National Museum, Gdańsk, Poland, exhibition catalogue
Contemporary Masters of Britain, view exhibition catalogue here
2016 Slippery & Amorphous NYC, view exhibition catalogue here
Slippery & Amorphous London, view exhibition catalogue here
Correspond 2016 catalogue
Contemporary British Painting Summer Exhibition 2016, ISBN 9-781534-87-123 downloadable exhibition catalogue here
2015 I don’t like art, selected essays by Graham Crowley, 2015, view Graham Crowley's Still Light essay online
Infinitely Precious Things view the exhibition catalogue online
2014 Correspond exhibition catalogue, 2014, ISBN 978-0-9544296-5-2
Zeitgeist Open 2014, view the exhibition catalogue online
2013 The Open West 2013, exhibition catalogue
Pushing Print Festival 2012 exhibition catalogue
What the Folk Say exhibition catalogue, Compton Verney
The Importance of Sequences, Clinical Chemist, Marek H Dominiczak
Self, compiled by Craig Kerrecoe ISBN 978-1-907437-00-7
1993 John Moores Liverpool Exhibition 18, National Merseyside Galleries and Museum, ISBN 0-906367-66-2
Royal Academy Schools student exhibition, introduction by Norman Rosenthal
Painting Today, Bonhams, foreword by Nicholas Usherwood
1990 Ten years of the John Player Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery
Artist lectures and discussions
Arcadia for All? Rethinking Landscape Painting Now, University of Leeds, 2023
Paint Edgy, The Ropewalk, Barton on Humber, 2022
Vitalistic Fantasies, online talk for Elysium Gallery, Swansea, 2022
Beep Painting Prize, online talk for Elysium Gallery, Swansea, 2020
Lockdown online interview with Robert Dunt for Art Top Ten, 2020
Paint Hard symposium, The Northern School of Art, November 2019
Artist Lecture, University of Leeds, November 2019
In conversation with Anna McNay at Resonance & wonder, Rye Creative Centre, 3 June 2017
Guest speaker at De La Warr Pavilion Artists Crit Group May 2017
Norwich University for the Arts
De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill
Jerwood Gallery, Hastings, 2015
Glasgow Artist Guild, with Marvin Gaye Chetwynd for the Glasgow Open House Festival, 2015
Disturbance, curator and artist discussion for International Womens’ Day 2014
Seeing in the dark, curators talk, The Fletcher Centre, Rye
Ivon Hitchens in context, curator’s talk, Rye Art Gallery, East Sussex
Correspond, artists’ discussion, Turps Art School, London
John Moores Painting Biennial, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Awards
Jackson's Art Prize, Matthew Burrow's Judge's Choice Award
London Festival Fringe Art Award, second place
Prize winner, John Moores 18, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Royal Academy Schools Prize for Painting
First Prize Winner, John Player Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery
Selected Collections
Jiangsu Museum of Art - China
Goodnestone Park, Kent
Priseman Seabrook Collection
Chadwicks, UEA Campus, Norwich
National Portrait Gallery, London
Baron and Baroness von Oppenheim
Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors
Loughborough Grammar School
Ted Baker London
Double Tree Hilton Hotel, Park Lane, London
