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Biography
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 memento mori still lifes, which 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. I find an equivalent magic in oil paint 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 own very few crystals; it feels inherently wrong to extract them from the earth. I prefer to explore museum collections. Yet a crystal's luminosity is only revealed once it is brought into the light. This is just one of the many tensions 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 focus is to find some resolution, like yin and yang, between opposing forces. Throughout life, we experience joy and sadness, love and loss. I hope these paintings offer the viewer a moment to pause, contemplate and find a place of peace.
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 '& Still Different Worlds' which included works by Miranda Boulton, Martyn Cross, Sam Douglas, Kirsty Harris, Paula MacArthur and Donna McLean, and included an in conversation event with Jennifer Higgie (2025), '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’.
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 '& Still Different Worlds' which included works by Miranda Boulton, Martyn Cross, Sam Douglas, Kirsty Harris, Paula MacArthur and Donna McLean, and included an in conversation event with Jennifer Higgie (2025), '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’.