Paul Winstanley was born in Manchester in 1954. He studied painting at Lanchester Polytechnic in Coventry (1972–1973), Cardiff College of Art (1973–1976) and the Slade School of Fine Art (1976–1978).
Familiar with the premises of 20th century modernism, Winstanley sought to bypass their perceived rigidity by embracing the tenets of minimalism with the pictorialism of photography. During this first period, he had a couple of big breaks: the exhibition of Walkway at the Whitechapel Open in 1989 (which won him the first prize Unilever Award), a year as Kettle’s Yard artist in residence in Cambridge, and being hosted by Churchill College with Newnham College providing the Old Lab in the gardens as a studio. These encouraging accolades boosted Winstanley’s creativity and allowed him to explore more personal vernaculars, cementing what would become his signature styles.
Some glimpses appeared as early as the 1990s, when the artist focused on post-war interiors and other spaces of functional English modernism. Presence in emptiness, transience and the potential of imminent change already manifest in these works, which would be presented in Driven Landscapes a 1993 show at Camden Arts Centre and then in his 1997-1998 Art Now show Annexe at the Tate, Millbank.
A serious road accident would reinforce these developing artistic certainties. Explorations of interior/exterior relationships, the suggestion of presence through absence and the impression of an event having ‘just happened’ are all present in the series Veil, which marks a nascent new beginning. This equated a change in technical approach, stretched linen abandoned in favour of wood and aluminium panels.
Through these implicit vaporous themes, Winstanley involves the spectator, inviting them to look for what is there, imagine what happened or anticipate what could happen next in a complementary narrative relationship.
Notable Winstanley exhibitions include: Maureen Paley/Interim Art, London (1994); Nathalie Obadia, Paris, and CRG, New York (both 1995), and Kerlin Gallery, Dublin (2002), John Moores, Liverpool (2004), and a major retrospective of his work at Art Space, Auckland, New Zealand (2008).
Recent exhibitions include: After the War the Renaissance, 1301PE, Los Angeles (2020); Altered States, Vera Munro Gallery, Hamburg (2019); Paul Winstanley, Pilar Serra, Madrid (2018); Paul Winstanley, Alan Cristea Gallery, London (2018); Faith After Saenredam And Other Paintings, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin (2017); Art School: New Prints and Panel Paintings, Alan Cristea Gallery, London (2016); Art School, Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York (2015); Art School, 1301PE, Los Angeles (2014); Art School, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin (2013); and Art School, Vera Munro Gallery, Hamburg (2013).
