Infinitely precious things; exhibition extended until Friday 9 May 2014

Venue: VJB Arts
Starts: Friday, January 24, 2014
Ends: Friday, May 9, 2014
Address: 60 Threadneedle Street London EC2R 8HP
Location: London

Paula MacArthur’s recent series of large scale canvases focuses on jewels. Enlarged a thousand times these tiny stones transform into celestial entities. These paintings are a personal celebration of love and over time have come to encompass universal desires and obsessions.

Working with viscous paint beside pools of barely tinted turps and using exaggerated intense colour the artist pushes the medium towards the extremes of its capabilities. Working quickly and instinctively MacArthur places colour onto the canvas working with wet on wet glazes, merging oily translucent layers with the brush and dropping colour, allowing it to bleed and grow into the surface.

From a distance brush marks and the trails of running paint are invisible, the paintings appear cohesive, even photographic, then as the viewer approaches the images disintegrate. The paint becomes as ephemeral as the jewel’s sparkle, the focus moves from the gemstone to the physicality of the paint and echoes the elusive ideals these minute treasures symbolise.

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Catalogue: bit.ly/MHyFjy

Paula MacArthur

Statement MacArthurʼs recent series of large canvases focuses on jewels. Enlarged a thousand times these tiny stones transform into celestial entities. These paintings are a celebration of love and have come to encompass universal desires and obsessions. Working with viscous paint beside pools of barely tinted turps and using exaggerated intense colour the artist pushes the medium towards the extremes of its capabilities. From a distance brush marks and the trails of running paint are invisible, the paintings appear cohesive, even photographic, then as the viewer approaches the images disintegrate as easily as the elusive ideals these minute treasures symbolise. Education 1993 Royal Academy Schools, Post-Graduate Diploma, Fine Art Painting 1990 Loughborough College of Art and Design, BA Hons, Fine Art Painting Awards WW Solo Award 2014 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 Current and forthcoming exhibitions Zeitgeist Summer Exhibition Zeitgeist Arts Projects, ASC Studios Entrance 2, Bond House, Goodwood Road, London SE14 6BL Preview Thursday 10 July, 5-8pm, exhibition continues 11-12 July, 1-5pm Cultural Coalition Hyde House, Langley Street, Covent Garden London WC2H 9JG Private view Thursday 17 July, 5-8pm, exhibition open 14 - 25 July Jewel Paintings; Paula MacArthur Kings Hill, Liberty Property, 11 Tower View, Kings Hill, Kent Continues until September 2014 Arches Printmakers, Coastal Currents Festival The Arches Printmaking Studio CIC, 1 Linton Arch, Braybrooke Terrace, Hastings TN34 1TD Friday 29 August - Sunday 14 September 10am - 6pm Turps Banana Painting Programme, End of Year Show Turps Art School, 12a-13a Taplow, Thurlow Street, London SE17 2UQ 5-11 September 2014 Open Studios 2014 The School Creative Centre, New Road, Rye, East Sussex TN30 7JX Friday September 19 6.30 - 8.30pm & Saturday September 20 10am - 5pm Solo Exhibitions 2014 Infinitely Precious Things, VJB Arts, 60 Threadneedle Street, London 2010 Amusement, Brighton Media Centre, East Sussex 2009 Showtime, The Coningsby Gallery, 30 Tottenham St, London 2009 Seaside Special, solo exhibition, The Arts Forum, St Leonards Selected Group Exhibitions 2014 Jewel Paintings, DMH Stallard, 6 New Street Square, New Fetter Lane, London, EC4A 3BF 2014 20 Painters,Phoenix Brighton 10-14 Waterloo Place, Brighton 2014 The Print Garden, Rye Art Gallery, High Street, Rye, East Sussex 2013 Crash Open Salon, Charlie Dutton Gallery, 1a Princeton Street, London WC1R 4AX 2013 Christmas BOGOF, WW Gallery, 34/35 Hatton Garden, London, EC1N 8DX 2013 Lion and Lamb Gallery at Sluice Art Fair, Bermondsey, London 2013 Navigate, The Old Cinema, Bexhill, in association with the De La Warr Pavillion 2013 The Femail Project, The Article Gallery, Birmingham City University 2013 The Open West, Newark Park Gloucestershire Touring to Cheltenham Art Gallery 2013 Covert and Obscured, Frances Bardsley Gallery, Romford 2013 Tasty Modern, Schwartz Gallery, London 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 Pushing Print, The Pie Factory, Margate 2012 The Perfect Nude, touring to Wimbledon Space, Exeter Phoenix Gallery & Charlie Smith London 2012 Summer Games, Nolias Gallery, 60 Great Suffolk Street, London SE1 0BL 2012 3x3, Cultivate, Vyner Street, London 2011 What the Folk Say, 26 March - December 2011, Compton Verney, Warwickshire 2010 Remasters, The Rag Factory, 16 Heneage Street, Off Brick Lane, London E1 2010 A Thousand Words; an installation for Art in Romney Marsh, St. Nicholas’ Church 2010 London Festival Fringe Art Award, The Gallery, 3 Bedfordbury, 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 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 Publications 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; Portraits from around the world, compiled by Craig Kerrecoe John Moores Liverpool Exhibition 18, National Merseyside Galleries and Museums 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 Selected Collections National Portrait Gallery, London Baron and Baroness von Oppenheim Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors Loughborough Grammar School Ted Baker London Hilton Double Tree Hotel, Park Lane