PAULA MACARTHUR
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 Paula MacArthur is a painter, trained at the Royal Academy & Turps Art Schools and was a John Moore’s Painting Prize winner in 1993. She exhibits nationally and internationally; and works from her studio in Rye, East Sussex.

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 highlights include ‘Entwined, Plants in Contemporary Painting’ touring to Huddersfield Art Gallery and 2021 Visual Arts Centre, Lincolnshire
, Made in Britain - National Museum Gdansk Poland (2019), In the Future curated by Rosalind Davis at Collyer Bristow Gallery (2018), Contemporary Masters from Britain touring four museums in China (2017), Slippery & Amorphous London & Brooklyn NYC (2016), Creekside Open selected by Richard Deacon (2015), What the Folk Say - Compton Verney Warwickshire (2011), Four Self- Portrait Artists - Walker Art Gallery Liverpool (1994), Royal Academy Schools Graduates, Grassi Museum Leipzig (1993), Young Contemporaries - Whitworth Art Gallery (1989). Permanent collections include the National Portrait Gallery London, Priseman Seabrook Collection and Jiangsu Art Museum in China and Graham Crowley included his essay on my work ‘Still Light’ in his book ‘I Don’t Like Art’

The current 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 particular specimens instinctively, choosing the examples which elicit an emotional and a physical response - butterflies, a gasp or a sigh. Through the slow, meditative process of painting, these valuable objects reveal themselves to her and she begins to delve into her subconscious and understand why 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 it becomes quite ominous. 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.

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 downloadable catalogue here and review by Anna McNay here

Selected group exhibitions
2023   Of Lightness, Blyth Gallery, Imperial College London, opens 20 September, private view 26 September, exhibition continues until 3 November
2023   Small Paintings from Far Away, International Gallery of Contemporary Art, Anchorage, Alaska, USA, August
2023   X - Contemporary British Painting, Newcastle Contemporary Art, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne NE1 1EW until Saturday 17 June
2023   Arcadia for all? Rethinking landscape painting now, Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds until 26 July
2023   Rogue Women 2, Rogue Artists’ Studios, Manchester until 28 May
2023   At Cross Purposes, book and touring exhibition curated by Dr Frances Woodley started at Aberystwyth University Museum Gallery and continues to
           Oriel Ynys Môn, Anglesey until 11 June, QSS Studios Gallery, Belfast 7 - 28 September 2023 and Elysium Gallery, Swansea 11 Nov - 23 Dec 2023
2023   Goddesses: A Love Explosion currently online, opening at Lido Stores Margate, private view 6-8pm 28 July, exhibition continues until 12 August 
2023   This Year's Model, Studio 1.1, London
2023   Embracement, online exhibition at Tin Man Art for International Women's Day
2022-3 Entwined, Huddersfield Art Gallery, then touring to 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe until 27 May
2022   Winter Lights, an online exhibition at Tin Man Art
2022   Love, Celebration and the Road Ahead curated by Hettie Judah, TJ Boulting, London
2022   Once Upon an Instant, HTW Berlin
2022   Variations, Rye Creative Centre
​2022   A Generous Space 2, The New Art Gallery Walsall
2022   Vitalistic Fantasies, Elysium Gallery, Swansea
​2022   Paradoxes, Quay Arts, Ryde, Isle of Wight
2021   A Generous Space, Hastings Contemporary
2021   Supernature, Kaleidoscope Gallery, Sevenoaks
2021   Human:Nature, Linden Hall Studio, Deal, Kent 
2021   Margins curated by Matthew Burrows MBE
2021   This Year's Model, Studio 1.1, London
2020   Lockdown Interviews exhibition, The Cello Factory, London
2020   Vitalistic Fantasies, The Cello Factory, London
2020   Wells Art Contemporary, online exhibition
2020   Beep Painting Prize, Elysium Gallery, Swansea
2020   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
2019   Supernature curated by PaintLounge, The Auxiliary Project Space, Middlesbrough  
2019   Mountain Size curated by Gordon Dalton, Pineapple Black, Middlesbrough
2019   Indoor Voices curated by Graham Crowley, Greystone Industries, Wickham Market, Suffolk
2019   Made in Britain, National Museum, Gdańsk, Poland
2019   Contemporary British Painting, The Hostry, Norwich
2019   Im/material bodies, Sluice HQ touring to Rye Creative Centre
2018   New Painting, The Crypt, St Marylebone Parish Church, London
2018   PaintLounge Berlin, Kühlhaus, Berlin
2018   Subsumed, curated by Fiona Long, The Crypt, St Marylebone Parish Church, London
2018   In the Future, curated by Rosalind Davis, Collyer Bristow Gallery Click here for the press release.
2018   Beep Painting Prize, Swansea College of Art
2018   Superstition, Project Space Wapping, London
2018   PaintNorth, Lady Beck Project Space, Leeds
2018   Devonshire Collective, Eastbourne, five Sussex artists: Izabela Brudkiewicz, Nikki Davidson Bowman, Jane King, Paua MacArthur & April Yasamee
2018   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
           Buy Exhibition Catalogue Here
2017   Summer Salon, Lubomirov Angus-Hughes, London
2017   Contemporary Masters from Britain, The Yantai Art Museum , Yantai, China
2017   Highly Inflammable, The Crypt, St Mary in the Castle, Hastings
2017   On the other side, recent works by New Road Artists, Rye Art Gallery
2017   Contemporary British Painting Summer Exhibition, Art Bermondsey Project Space
​2017   Contemporary Masters from the East of England: 35 Painters from the East of England, The Cut, Halesworth, 25 April - 27 May
2017   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
2016   Contemporary British Painting Summer Exhibition, Quay Arts, Ryde, Isle of Wight
2016   Slippery & Amorphous The Crypt, St Marylebone Parish Church, London download catalogue
2016   Correspond, The Artworks, 1830 Building, Shaw Lane, Halifax
           touring to Rye Creative Centre, East Sussex and  Interview Room 11, Edinburgh 
2016   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
2015   Undead Painters, ASC Gallery, New Cross Gate, London, curated by Alastair Gordon and James Petrucci
2015   Adam Fenton’s Painting Club, No Format Gallery, Woolwich
2015   Creekside Open, APT Gallery, London, selected by Richard Deacon
2015   Disturbance, Atom Gallery, Stroud Green Road, London
2015   Cold on the outside, Willowbank Crescent, Glasgow
2014   Red Xmas Studio 1.1 gallery, 57a Redchurch Street, Shoreditch, London
2014   Q14 APT Gallery, Harold Wharf, 6 Creekside, Deptford, London
2014   OVERHE(a)R(e), Aplomb Gallery, Chicago, USA
2014   Le Voci Ritrovate, Castello di Monti, Corigliano d’Otranto, Italy
2014   Zeitgeist Open ZAP, ASC Studios, London, selected by Rosalind Davies, Annabel Tilley, Andrew Bick & Juan Bolivar download the catalogue here
2014   Correspond, Turps Art School, Taplow, London, curated by Marcus Harvey, Graham Carrick & Paula MacArthur read the review by Charley Peters
2014   Off the Wall, The 9th Terrace Annual Open, London
2014   Zeitgeist Summer Exhibition, Zeitgeist Arts Projects, London
2014   20 Painters, Phoenix Brighton 10-14 Waterloo Place, Brighton download Painters' Painters essay by Maria Bonner
2014   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
2013   Lion and Lamb Gallery at Sluice Art Fair, Bermondsey, London
2013   The Open West, Cheltenham Art Gallery
2013   The Femail Project, The Article Gallery, Birmingham City University
2013   Navigate, Bexhill Art Trail supported by the De La Warr Pavillion, The Old Cinema, Bexhill
2013   The Open West, Newark Park Gloucestershire, review by Sunny Cheung
2013   Covert and Obscured, Frances Bardsley Gallery, Romford
2013   Tasty Modern, Schwartz Gallery, London watch the exhibition video here
2012   Seeing in the Dark, The Fletcher Centre, Rye, East Sussex
2012   Minutiae, The Stone Space, London
2012   ALAS Autumn Residency Exhibition, Matt Roberts Arts, Vyner Street, London
2012   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, 26 March - December 2011, Compton Verney, Warwickshire
2010   A Thousand Words; an installation for Art in Romney Marsh, St. Nicholas’  Church
2010   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
1993   Royal Academy Post-Graduates, Grassimuseum, Leipzig, Germany
1991-3 Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, London
1989   Young Contemporaries, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
1989   First Prize Winner, John Player Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery

Residencies and collaborations
2018   Project based residency, Griffin Gallery, London
2017   Trelex Residency, Switzerland
2014   Le Voci Ritrovate, Castello di Monti, Castigliano 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
Made in Britain, National Museum, Gdańsk, Poland, exhibition catalogue
​Contemporary Masters of Britain, view exhibition catalogue here
​Slippery & Amorphous NYC, view exhibition catalogue here
​Slippery & Amorphous London, view exhibition catalogue here
Correspond 2016 catalogue
Contemporary Brtish Painting Summer Exhibition 2016, ISBN 9-781534-87-123 downloadable exhibition catalogue here
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
Correspond exhibition catalogue, 2014, ISBN 978-0-9544296-5-2
Zeitgeist Open 2014, view the exhibition catalogue online
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
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, foreward by Nicholas Usherwood
Ten years of the John Player Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery

Artist lectures and discussions
Paint Hard symposium, The Northern School of Art, November 2019
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 Critique Group May 2017
Norwich University for the Arts
De La Warr Pavilion, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill
Jerwood Gallery, Hastings
Glasgow Artist Guild, with Marvin Gaye Chetwynd for the Glasgow Open House Festival
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
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