Paula MacArthur

Paula MacArthur is a painter. She trained at the Royal Academy Schools and was a John Moore’s Painting Prize winner in 1993. Paula’s focus is crystals & jewels, these are explorations of colour & light, a contemporary response to Dutch 17th-century vanitas painting. 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.

Career highlights include 'Arcadia for All? Rethinking Landscape Painting Now' at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery Leeds, touring to the Attenborough Art Centre, Leicester, with artworks by Hurvin Anderson, Lubaina Himid, Matthew Krishanu, Paula MacArthur, Elizabeth Magill & George Shaw.

'Entwined: Plants in Contemporary Painting' 2022-23 touring from Huddersfield Art Gallery to 20-21 Arts Centre Scunthorpe featured works by Hannah Brown, Graham Crowley, Michele Fletcher, Juliette Losq, Paula MacArthur, Joe Packer, Julian Perry, Narbi Price, Judith Tucker & Joanna Whittle.

Other highlights include the essay 'Still Light' by Graham Crowley, ‘Paint Fiction’ International Gallery of Contemporary Art, Anchorage, USA (2023), 'PaintLounge Berlin' (2018), 'Made in Britain' at the National Museum Gdansk, Poland (2019), Contemporary Masters from Britain touring four museums in China (2017), Slippery & Amorphous London & Brooklyn (2016) John Moores Painting Prize (1993) and Young Contemporaries Whitworth Art Gallery (1989).