Paul Brewster

Taken as a whole, the work I’ve produced over the years probably puts me in the ‘narrative camp’ as an artist, but not obviously so. To make sense of my images, you most likely need to piece them together for yourself - for me, the ongoing process in practice relying on suggestion and dislocated form to evoke multiple readings.
 
The starting point for a work is no less diverse. Drawn to an array of ‘subject matter’, it is the constructed world where I find my motivation lies. Film and TV, Religion and Family, Urban and Rural topography, it is things such as these which have significantly shaped who I am today, and this which acts as both subject and vehicle for the work to develop and evolve.
 
Without doubt, my strategies and how I respond to a piece in progress is personal, though not autobiographical in conventional understanding. For one such example, religion has been a topic I have returned to time and again, though I hold no religious beliefs myself. Rather, the subject explores my encounters and response to the daily rituals living with those I have been deeply involved with over the years who live with strong beliefs themselves.
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All in all, the initial motivation for a piece may well remain and develop but more often th...

1994 MA Fine Art
1985 BA (Hons) Fine Art
1982 Foundation Studies Art and Design

national awards and prizes:

2016       National Open Contemporary Portrait Awards . The
Biscuit Factory . First Prize
1997 BP Portrait Award – NPG – Short-listed for First Prize
– Awarded Commendation
1995 BP Portrait Award – NPG – Short-listed for First Prize
– Awarded Commendation

2022 Arts Council England - Developing your Creative
Practice Grant
1995 / 98 Northern Arts Awards for Artists
1985 Backhouse Prize for Drawing – First Prize

2016 - OPEN CONTEMPORARY PORTRAIT AWARDS - The Biscuit Factory - Newcastle

2012 - FEAR and LOSS – Videos from the Melodrama series – 67B Gallery – Newcastle

2010 - LOST and FOUND –  Videos from the Melodrama series - Campbell Park – Milton Keynes

2009 - POLISH PHOTOS - Hanger 51 - Newcastle

2007 - STARY KRAJOBRAZ – NOWY PEJZAŻ – EDGE OF PERFECTION [solo] – Filharmonia Podlaska – Białystok, Poland

2004 - DEAD BABES [solo] – the GALLERY – Huntingdon

2002 - ROYAL SOCIETY of PORTRAIT PAINTERS – Mall Galleries – London

2001 - BP PORTRAIT AWARDS -National Portrait Gallery – London - The New Millennium Gallery – Sheffield

1999 - VITAL ART – e1 Gallery @ Gallery 77, Cowcross Street – London

1999 - LOCAL AMNESIA [solo] – Laing Art Gallery – Newcastle

1999 - A SELF PORTRAIT – The Brewery Gallery – Kendal

1999 - NEWCASTLE X – University of Northumbria – Newcastle

1998 - BP PORTRAIT AWARDS: National Portrait Gallery – London - Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen

1998 - MYTHICAL REALISM – e1 Gallery @ Coningsby Gallery – London

1997 - FABULOUS TRANSGRESSIONS – Vardy Gallery – Sunderland

1997 - BP PORTRAIT AWARDS:National Portrait Gallery – London - Aberdeen Art Gallery – Aberdeen - Ulster Museum – Belfast - Vardy Gallery – Sunderland
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