Curator
Paula MacArthur b. Enfield, UK, 1967 MacArthur grew up in Hertfordshire and trained at The Royal Academy Schools in London, completing her studies in 1993. She now lives on the South Coast of England and works from her studio in Rye, East Sussex. As a student she had early success as a portrait painter exhibiting at the Mall Galleries with the Royal Society of Portrait Painter. In 1989 she won the John Player Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery London and subsequently was commissioned to paint a portrait of double Nobel Prize winner, Frederick Sanger. After leaving the Royal Academy Schools she was one of the prizewinners alongside Peter Doig at John Moores Painting Prize, was invited to give a lecture and later be Artist in Residence at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. In 2024 she won the Matthew Burrows Judge’s Choice Award at the Jackson’s Art Prize with her painting ‘When nothing else remains’. After starting a family her subject matter began to change and her work developed into the style she is now recognised for. MacArthur’s Jewel series began in 2010 and in 2019 this evolved into the Crystal series, she now works concurrently on both series. She exhibits and curates nationally and internationally and alongside her studio practice, Paula is a mentor on the Turps Hastings Off-Site Programme, a BA Painting Programme Tutor at OCA, Coordinator of the Contemporary British Painting Prize and a committee member of the artist-led group Contemporary British Painting.
Exhibitions and Events
2025
2019
2017
2016
