Paul White

Born 1976, Parramatta
Bachelor of Arts, Visual Arts (Hons)
Graduation show: 1997
Graduation ceremony: 1998

Artwork in Space YZ

Detour, 1999/2021
Mixed media and found objects
Dimensions variable

My work in Space YZ, is a reformatting of an installation titled Detour that I made and exhibited in 1999. It was made with various materials and found objects and was the first major work made after graduating from my Bachelor of Arts with Honours. It was first exhibited at the project space Room 35 at Gitte Weise Gallery upstairs on Oxford St in Darlinghurst. The show was sponsored by the amazingly supportive Sydney collector Peter Fay, who first saw my work at the UWS grad show of 1996, and was produced primarily in the home warehouse studio of legendary UWS lecturer Joan Grounds when I had an extended stay housesitting her cat. Some elements of this installation remain, others I have remade, a peculiar but familiar feeling some 20 years later.

When I completed high school it was without question that I would go straight to art school and I envisaged that I would go to one of the two city art schools. However, after I attended an interview at UWS my mind was changed and I remember particularly that it was Rhett Brewer that sold me on UWS being the place I should attend. And it absolutely was, the knowledge and connections made here with students and lecturers alike would form and influence the beginnings of my practice.

The program was interdisciplinary and freeing and the lecturers were exceptional and inspiring, in particular my mentor the late and dearly missed Debra Porch who pushed me beyond what I knew I was capable of. This time spilled into post art school life where I continued to exhibit often with several former students, such as Michael Lindeman, and then ultimately to a Samstag Scholarship which took me to Los Angeles and an MFA at CalArts (2001-03), where I was able to push my work further and gain long lasting inspiration, unexpectedly taking me full circle back to drawing. This love of drawing has been lasting and I have been working almost exclusively with pencil on paper since 2004. Since then I have been awarded several substantial art prizes and most recently a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant awarded in 2020. My time at UWS was key to this journey and I am fortunate that I was there in a sweet spot of its history.

Learn more about Paul White by visiting his website and Instagram.