Growing up in a working-class environment where little was spoken and emotions were rarely expressed continues to shape my contemporary art practice. There remains a sense of things being held back or buried, of experiences existing beneath the surface.
My work explores memory, language, psychological landscape and material transformation through contemporary abstract painting, sculptural works and text-based art. I’m interested in what is hidden, suppressed or only partially understood, and how making can become a way of uncovering meaning through process, repetition and material.
Working with found materials, recycled surfaces and primed cardboard, I cut, carve and build into the surface to create layered reliefs, folds and ridges. These sculptural abstract forms hold traces of pressure, erosion and change, combining material experimentation with emotional and psychological enquiry.
Geomorphology — the movement of land, rivers and seas — is an important influence on the work. Physical landscapes become a metaphor for internal states, with surfaces shaped by tension, disruption, fragility, resilience and repair. The work often exists between painting and sculpture, creating textured contemporary artworks that evoke excavation and shifting terrain.
Alongside these sculptural paintings, I create text-based artworks that draw on rhythm, repetition and wordplay. My background in type design continues to shape my approach to language, visual structure and composition. More recently, raising my autistic son has led me to think more deeply about communication and the shifting meanings language can hold.
Across the work, there is a recurring return to memory, repetition and the attempt to make sense of experience through making.
Paul studied Fine Art at the University of Wales and Printmaking and Design at Pratt New York. He received an MA in Psychoanalytic Studies from the Tavistock London and an MA in Fine Art with Teaching and Learning from Kingston University London (2015). He is presently based in Surrey, UK.
Selected Shows and Events SnailMail LDN – NYC with DB Barrett, 2026 / HomeRun AOR15 @Studio Rosinal UK, 2026 / ALAAC with Ben Brown on RTM.FM TACO London UK, 2025 / Downtown @Vaults, London UK, 2025 / Boot Poets @Carpool with Ben Brown and the icing room – spoken word – London UK, 2025 / Silo @Studio Rosinal UK, 2025 / Entrancement @Electro Studios Hastings UK, 2024 / Rose + Fell @Terrace Gallery London UK, 2024 / It will change @Tolworth Tower Space London UK, 2024 / Curve @Manor Wall Studios UK, 2023 / Wild Thought @Lido Margate UK, 2023 / Slide AOR12 @Watts Gallery Compton UK, 2023 / New York International Print Show MGC New York USA, 2022 / Lucky Devils @Asylum with Ben Brown and Ziad Nagy UK, 2022 / This Ends Here @Tolworth Tower Space London UK, 2021 / K.O.P intro with La Petite Mort TACO – spoken word – UK, 2021 / Hard Rain @SET Dalston London UK (solo), 2019 / A522 Publication London UK, 2019 / Scissor AOR8 @Cass Sculpture Sussex UK, 2019 / Test Strip @Museum of Futures London UK, 2019 / Proof Print @Neo Gallery Manchester UK, 2018 / My Xerox Works @A42D Publication SET Alscot Road London UK, 2018 / Et Tu Brute? Andrew Edlin Gallery New York USA, 2018 / Print City + V&A Mini Print Show London UK, 2018 / LSI Showcase Camden Arts Centre Artists’ Studio London UK, 2017 / Folkestone is an Art School project @Folkestone Triennial UK – with Bob and Roberta Smith, 2017 / Creekside Open APT Gallery London UK – selected by Alison Wilding, 2017 / LSI Residency @Camden Arts Centre + Slade Research Centre London UK, 2017 / Power & Politics @Shape Ecology Pavilion London UK – selected by Yinka Shonibare, 2017 / The Ibero-American Art Award London UK, 2016 / Blind Plural @HYG London UK, 2016 / Signals @11.15 Space with Jeni Johnson, Folkestone UK, 2016 / Show Business @Stanley Picker Gallery London UK – curated by Isobel Harbison, 2015 / BAGT @Artworks Project Space London UK – selected by Jonathan Baldock + Paul Johnson, 2015 / Making an Impression Publication PMC London UK, 2015 / Flat White Wall Machine @XMarks the Bokship + Matt’s Gallery London UK, 2015 / Metamorphosis, Platform Space London UK – curated by Tom Morton, 2015 / Pony Box @Stanley Picker Gallery London UK, 2015.