Paul White

We are delighted to let you know that the very talented Paul White has joined Metro Gallery and will hold his first solo show with us in 2011.

Paul’s practice explores objects that are part of popular culture, his style is unique in the Australian art world and we believe he is one of our most gifted young artists emerging today.

Paul took out the 2010 Metro Gallery Judges’ Prize for his brilliant oil pencil on paper work “Lost Dreaming of Dinosaurs under Fossil Fuelled Rainbows” in August this year.

His work was praised unanimously by the judges including former Victorian Premier, Jeff Kennett; Sam Leach, the 2010 Archibald winner and 2006 Metro Gallery Art Award winner; Judith Ryan, Senior Curator of Indigenous Art, National Gallery of Victoria; and art consultant James Makin.

Leach said at the time: “This work won on several counts. The strength of White’s drawing, his draughtsmanship and composition, is astounding. He also moves beyond the traditional 19th century notion of depicting the beauty of nature to portraying a haunting beauty in industrial waste. In doing so, he has successfully defined a new version of artistic romanticism for our current era. At the same time, he clearly understands and highlights the environmental problems associated with our throwaway society. It’s a brilliant conceptual work on all levels.”

34 year old Paul holds a BA in Fine Arts from the University of Western Sydney (1997); and a Master of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles (2003) where he studied under the Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship.

CV

Born Sydney 1976

EDUCATION

2003 MFA (Art) California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), Los Angeles
1997 BA (First Class Honours) Visual Arts, University of Western Sydney

AWARDS

2010 Metro Art Award
2010 Williamstown Festival Contemporary Art Prize, Local Artist Award
2007 Myartspace New York New York 2007 Competition, Finalist
2006 Tattersall’s Contemporary Art Award, Local Artist Award
2005 NAVA Visual and Craft Artists’ Grant Scheme
2002 CalArts Scholarship
2002 CalArts Deans Reserve Fund
2002 Samstag Supplementary Scholarship
2001 Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship
2000 Gunnery Studio Program, Artspace, Sydney
1997 William Fletcher Trust Grant

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2009 Sunrise after sunset before sunrise, Billboard Project Hobsons Bay Council, Melbourne (Jan)
2007 Wild West Break Down, Nellie Castan Gallery (Aug)
2006 Auto Drive By, Mori Gallery, Sydney (Jun)
2004 Drawings, Room 35 at Gitte Weise Gallery, Sydney (Nov)
2004 Stitched, Gertrude Contemporary Exhibitions, Melbourne (Aug)
2003 Untitled, Gallery D300, CalArts, Los Angeles (Feb)
2002 Paul White Sews, Winslow Garage, Los Angeles (Nov)
2002 Untitled, The Lime Gallery, CalArts, Los Angeles (Feb)
2001 Untitled, Rubyayre gallery, Sydney (Feb)
2000 The Green Room, Casula Powerhouse, Sydney (Jul)
1999 Detour, Room 35 at Gitte Weise, Sydney (Aug)
1998 n>4+g7-?i1)..Y, Open House Gallery, Sydney (Oct)
1997 Untitled, 151 Regent Street, Sydney (Feb)

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2010 Metro Art Award, Metro Gallery, Melbourne (Aug)
MCM House Art Show, MCM House, Sydney (May)
Look See, Hunter St Mall – in conjunction with Look Hear @ Newcastle Regional Gallery,
Newcastle (April)
Off the Wall – Art Melbourne, Exhibition Centre, Melbourne (April) Williamstown Festival Contemporary Art Prize, Newport Substation, Melbourne (March) After Christmas Slasher Sale, Public Space One, Iowa City, Iowa (Jan)
2009 Koast Snowboarding an exhibition, Saatchi & Saatchi Gallery, Sydney (Sept)
The Forty Thieves 2, Gorker Gallery, Melbourne (Aug)
2008 Stitched, Penrith Regional Gallery, Sydney (Nov) Robert Jacks Drawing Prize, Bendigo Gallery, Melbourne (Sept) Cracow Screen Festival, Cracow, Poland (May)
2006 2×1, Nellie Castan Gallery (Dec)
Tallis Foundation National Works on Paper, Mornington Regional Gallery (Jun) Pleasures and Terrors, Blindside, Melbourne (May) Tattersall’s Contemporary Art Award, Newport Substation, Melb (Mar)
2005 Paper Chase, Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne (Dec)
Lapped, Campbelltown Arts Centre, (Sep)
Room 35 turns 8, Room 35 at Gitte Weise, Sydney (Sep)
CalArts Alumni Reunion Show, CalArts, Los Angeles (Jul)
CalArts Fundraiser, Online Show/Auction (May) No War Benefit, Mori Gallery, Sydney (May) Checkpoint; Placard Project. Mori Gallery, Sydney (Jan)
2004 Junket, Instituto de Cultura de Baja California, Tijuana, Mexico (Aug)
2003 Home Sweet Home: Works from the Peter Fay Collection, National Gallery of Australia, (Oct)
We’ve Moved, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA, (Sep)
Emergence, Track 16, Bergamot station, Los Angeles, CA (Mar)
Art Weird, Stevenson Blanche Gallery, Valencia, CA (Feb)
2002 Soft, Time and Place, Lebec, CA (Nov)
Mid Residency Show, CalArts, Los Angeles (Oct)
2001 That was now, this is then, Gitte Weise, Sydney (Jun)
Gettin’ Lucky, Lewers Gallery, Penrith (Feb)
2000 Rubyayre Benefit Show, Rubyayre Gallery, Sydney (Apr)
1999 Hack, Grey Matter, Sydney (Nov)
Nine Lives, Casula Powerhouse, Sydney (Oct)
Qintex, Smith and Stoneley, Brisbane (Jul)
Al Eisen and Friends, Herringbone Gallery, Sydney (Mar)
1998 Symbol (Mx6), first draft, Sydney (Aug)
Suspension, Herringbone Gallery, Sydney (Jul)
Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship, Artspace, Sydney (May)
1997 Sterile Until Opened or Damaged, Artspace, Sydney (Dec)
Love Letters to John McDonald, 151 Regent Street, Sydney (May)
Hatched: Healthway National Graduate Show, Perth Institute of Cont. Art,(Apr)
1996 How Much Do You Love Me?, 151 Regent St, Sydney (Dec)
Taking A Line, Victoria College of the Arts, Melbourne (Sep)

MEDIA/REVIEWS/PUBLICATION

2010 The Age, Melbourne, Metro Gallery Awards, 11/8/2010 Beat Magazine, Shop assistant wins Metro Gallery award, 11/8/2010 Hobsons Bay Leader, Not too rusty, 10/8/2010 Stonnington Leader, Ride-in on dinosaurs, 10/8/2010 Sydney Morning Herald, 24 hrs The Arts Diary, Rainbow Dreams, 4/8/2010 Herald Sun Melbourne, Drawing on a love of cars, 4/8/2010 The Mail, Classic cars honoured on canvas, 4/8/2010 Channel 9 news Melbourne, Metro Gallery Award, 3/8/2010 Transfer Snowboard Magazine, Art & Culture, Issue 3, 2010 Williamstown Advertiser, Artist off the wall and over the moon, 24/3/2010 Williamstown Advertiser, Another success for artist, 17/3/2010
2009 Hobsons Bay Leader, Holden on to an icon, 10/3/2009 Williamstown Advertiser, Sunsets on billboard series, 4/2/2009 Hobsons Bay Leader, Sun sets on conversations billboard art project, 3/2/2009
22 zine, Issue 5, Oct 09, feature artist, pg 26 viewable online http://issuu.com/twenty2wo/docs/22issue05_web
2008 Empty magazine issue 12, front cover and inside spread feature
2007 Article – The Journal of Art Education Victoria, Vol 9, Number 2, 2007
pg 36 – Review ‘Wild West Break Down’ Sue Kinneally
The Age, A2, Art around the galleries, Megan Backhouse 11/8/07
2004 Sydney Morning Herald, Metro, Tracy Clement, 10/12/04 Interview on 3RRR FM (Melbourne), High & Low, 31/8/04 Stitched Exhibtion catalogue pub. Gertrude contemporary Junket Exhibition Catalogue
2003 New American Paintings, Open Studios Press, Boston, MA.
2002 Sydney Morning Herald, Change of Art, Lenny Ann Low, 24/7/02
2001 Sydney Morning Herald, Exhibitions, Weird Science, Victoria Hynes, 22/6/01 Sydney Morning Herald, Exhibitions, Lucky Stars, Victroia Hynes, 2/3/01
Gettin’ Lucky Exhibition catalogue
2000 The 2001 Anne and Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship catalogue (pub. Samstag program, University of South Australia) Art Asia Pacific, In Search of Dissidence, A. Curruthers, #28, p.40-47 Art and Text, Hack (review), Blair French, #69, p.90
1999 Nine Lives Residency and Exhibition catalogue (pub. Casula Powerhouse)
Sydney Morning Herald, Spectrum Arts, Much Ado About…What?, Bruce James, 20/11/99.
Sydney Morning Herald, Spectrum Arts, Al Eisen and Friends, Bruce James, 03/04/99.
1998 Interview on 2SER FM (Australia), Arts on the Air, 15/08/98 Interview on 2SER FM (Australia), The Buzz, 13/08/98 Sydney Morning Herald, The Galleries, Bruce James, 04/08/98
1997 The West Australian, Big Weekend, Cullinanes Travels, David Bromfield, 28/06/97 Healthway: National Graduate Show catalogue (pub. PICApress)

COLLECTIONS

Artbank
Peter Fay Collection
Private Collections

Artist Statement

“My practice explores concepts of the everyday: its cyclical and evolving nature; individuals’ relation to it; and its impact on personal identity. I explore objects and images that are part of the popular culture that one navigates daily in the urban environment. I investigate indications of fractures in society, specifically examining elements of the everyday that are in decay and have become signifiers of time passing—such as a once thriving object that has been transformed by age. While its initial purpose may have become obsolete, the decline of the object creates the possibility for its renewal or reinvention. My practice celebrates the moment when the object is suspended between what it was and what it could be.” – Paul White 2010