Paula MacArthur
  • Home
  • About
  • Paintings
  • Contact
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.


Picture
​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’.
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
Picture
  • Home
  • About
  • Paintings
  • Contact