Paul Bishop

Artist statements. Most artists struggle to write a good one. I’ll usually go to great lengths to obfuscate them (as I’m doing here) or eschew them entirely.

At best they have a limited shelf-life. Good for a particular time and place. So, what’s my place, what’s my time?

It’s a recent return to Launceston from Melbourne, to live in my much bigger house after an absence of eight years. It’s my obsession with everything that needs to be done. FFS, I’m like a 65-year-old retiree on speed. For the first month I couldn’t sleep beyond 5am.

There’s a new working space to establish and a forthcoming exhibition to make ready. What seems like an endless stream of boxes to unpack, full of books and artworks I’ve not seen for years. Finally giving pictures a home on a wall. A big garden to absorb. Loved ones to catch up with, acquaintances to renew and old but familiar places to revisit and see afresh.

So how will this all settle? How will this manifest in my painting as I expand into that new working space and lift the size of my pictures? I have few clues on how my paintings will look. I can only offer a statement that mirrors my zeal in keeping the picture-making process as open and fluid as possible.

Click here for artwork by Paul Bishop

Exhibitions at Tacit

2023 All that is not ladder falls away

   

 

Exhibitions include

Solo

2023 All that is not ladder falls away, Tacit Art, Melbourne
2022 Conversations from those quiet months, Tacit Art, Melbourne
1995 Sometime Samples, Snake Pit Gallery, Launceston
1993 Paul Bishop - Survey 1988-1993. University Gallery, University of Tasmania, Launceston
Blind Date Kiss. Chameleon Contemporary Art Space, Hobart
1991 Long Ponderings on Barren Aesthetics - Eleven Recent Works, La Trobe University, Bendigo

Group 

2023 The Summer Show, Blenheim Gallery, Longford, Tasmania
SUBSTRATE 23, Tacit Art, Melbourne
TACIT Still Life [Redux], Tacit Art, Melbourne
Northern Exposure. Poimena Gallery, Launceston
2022 Expressive potential: studies in abstraction, Bendigo Art Gallery
TACIT Still Life Prize, Tacit Art, Melbourne
Abstraction 22. Five Walls, Melbourne
SUBSTRATE 22, Tacit Art, Melbourne
The Butterfly Effect. Poimena Gallery, Launceston
2021 TACIT Still Life Prize, Tacit Art, Melbourne
Poimena@20. Poimena Gallery, Launceston
RESIST/RELIEF. No Vacancy Gallery, Melbourne
2020 Image_Object (The Visual and the Physical), Mona Foma, Poimena Gallery, Launceston
2019 Wrap 2019 Small Artwork Prize, East Gippsland Art Gallery, Bairnsdale
Inside Job, Poimena Gallery, Launceston (w/ Kevin Lund)
RoCo6x6x2019, Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Rochester, New York
Postcarded, Anton Art Center, Mount Clemens, Michigan
2018 Mientras la Vida nos Dure, Port of Veracruz, Mexico