Paula MacArthur is a painter. Born in 1967, she trained at the Royal Academy & now works from her studio in Rye, East Sussex. She exhibits nationally and internationally and works from her studio in Rye, East Sussex. Alongside her studio practice, Paula is a BA Painting Programme Tutor at OCA, a mentor on the Turps Hastings Off-Site Programme, Coordinator of the Contemporary British Painting Prize and a committee member of the artist-led group Contemporary British Painting.

Paula was a prizewinner at John Moore’s Painting Prize in 1993 and first prize winner at the National Portrait Gallery Portrait Award in 1989. Other career highlights include 'Arcadia for All. Rethinking Landscape Painting Now' is on show until 28 January 2024 at Attenborough Arts Centre, University of Leicester where her work is exhibited alongside Hurvin Anderson, Lubaina Himid, Elizabeth McGill and George Shaw amongst others. In 2023 Paula's work was part of ‘Entwined, Plants in Contemporary Painting’ touring to Huddersfield Art Gallery and 2021 Visual Arts Centre, Lincolnshire. Other highlights include 'Made in Britain' at the National Museum, Gdansk, Poland, (2019), 'In the Future' curated by Rosalind Davis at Collyer Bristow Gallery in London (2018), Contemporary Masters from Britain touring four museums in China (2018), 'Slippery & Amorphous' which toured from London to Brooklyn NYC (2016). Her work was selected by Richard Deacon for the Creekside Open in 2015 and in 2011 she was included 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 on completing her studies at the Royal Academy Schools her work travelled to Germany for a post-graduate show at the Grassimuseum in Leipzig. Whilst a degree student her work was included in the Young Contemporaries - Whitworth Art Gallery (1989) and the Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery, London where she won joint first prize alongside Tai-Shan Schierenberg.
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Permanent collections include the 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’.

The focus of Paula MacArthur’s work is crystals and jewels, these are explorations of colour and light, a contemporary response to Dutch 17th century Pronkstilleven painting - ostentatious still life. Solitary, precious stones are captured in the spotlight, displayed as icons which lure us in and quietly invite us to investigate the multifaceted associations we bring to these treasures.

She selects mineral specimens instinctively, choosing the examples which really thrill. Through the slow, meditative process of painting, these valuable objects reveal themselves to her and she begins to delve into her subconscious and understand how they resonate with her personally. The resulting paintings also resonate more universally; touching upon issues such as materialism, capitalism, feminism and the environment, and broader themes which concern us all, love, beauty and the ephemerality of life.

The crystal series was started in 2019 and developed during lockdown. The glowing forms of the quartz crystal in ‘All these silent moments’ describes an extremely slow growing mineral but it reminds us of both a small, momentary splash in a pool and a vast, exploding supernova. ‘Didn’t I give you nearly everything’ describes thin, fragile gypsum filaments as they expand into a solid yet extremely delicate heart shaped form. Both canvases were painted slowly and carefully in very thin glazes during lockdown, MacArthur’s approach changed subtly to reflect the collective feeling of anxiety arising from the pandemic. The crystal forms are beautiful and strange; emerging from the painted void they seem suddenly to mimic the alien appearance of a virus and become both ominous and beautiful. Within a single object our desire to accumulate treasures as tokens of love and displays of wealth is contrasted with the knowledge of our own fragility and ultimate demise.

Current and forthcoming exhibitions and events

Common Ground, The Old Gym, New Road, Rye, East Sussex TN31 7LS
Private view 5-8pm Friday 6 September
Exhibition continues daily 10am - 4pm

Open Studios, Rye Creative Centre, New Road, Rye, East Sussex TN31 7LS
5-8pm Friday 20th September 
10am - 4pm Saturday 21st September

The Lido Open, Lido Stores, 2 Ethelbert Terrace, Margate
Opening drinks reception and winner announcement 7-9pm Saturday 21st September
Open 11am-5pm Wednesday-Saturday &10am-2pm Sunday-Monday, 18 September - 5 October


Education
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

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
         This Year’s Model part III, Studio 1.1, London
        Assembly, The Old Gym, Rye Creative Centre, New Road, Rye East Sussex TN31 7LS
         Let's talk about Intuition, curated by The Coincidence Gallery at Pictorem Gallery, London
2023 Abundance, Rye Art Gallery, East Sussex
         At Cross Purposes, book and touring exhibition curated by Dr Frances Woodley, 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
         Art on a Postcard, exhibition and online auction, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne
         At Cross Purposes, book & touring exhibition curated by Dr Frances Woodley, QSS Studios Gallery, Belfast
         New Road Artists Autumn Exhibition, Rye Creative Centre, East Sussex
         The Art Car Boot Fair Goes Pop, online
         Open Studios, Rye Creative Centre, East Sussex
         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, Oriel Ynys Môn, Anglesey
        Rogue Women 2, Rogue Artists’ Studios, Manchester 
        At Cross Purposes, book and touring exhibition curated by Dr Frances Woodley, Aberystwyth University Museum Gallery
        Goddesses: A Love Explosion, Terrace Gallery, London
         Entwined, Plants in Contemporary Painting, 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe
        This Year's Model, Studio 1.1, London
        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
        Devonshire Collective, Eastbourne, five Sussex artists: Izabela Brudkiewicz, Nikki Davidson Bowman, Jane King, Paua 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

Curated exhibitions
2019  The Contemporary British Painting Prize, Menier Gallery, London
2019   Sara Dare Paintings, Rye Creative Centre, Rye East Sussex
2018   New Painting, The Crypt, St Marylebone Parish Church, London
2018   PaintLounge Berlin, Kühlhaus, Berlin 
2017   PaintLounge London, Sluice Expo, London
2016   Slippery & Amorphous, Art Helix Brooklyn
2016   NAVIGATE: Re-envisioning Landscape, Ian Brown, Gary Mckay, Steph Rubin – contemporary approaches to describing the earth’s landscape
2016   We work in the dark, we do what we can, we give what we have, Alice Anderson, Phil Illingworth, Evy Jokhova
2015   Disturbance, Atom Gallery,  London
2014   Le Voci Ritrovate, Castello di Monti, Corigliano d’Otranto, Italy supported by Hastings Council & the De La Warr Pavilion
2014   Correspond, Turps Art School, Taplow, London co-curated with Graham Carrick and Marcus Harvey
2012   Seeing in the Dark, The Fletcher Centre, Rye, East Sussex

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
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