Paul Campbell was born in Boston, MA, USA. He received a Bachelor of Fine Art degree from Massachusetts College of Art. Early on in his career he was influenced by the conceptual art movement but his work has always remained grounded in the painting process. He moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1981. For years he has explored unusual methods of creating paintings. In his first major solo exhibition in New York in 1999 called Remote Control he showed paintings made with remote control cars. His most recent paintings are inspired by road repair lines. In these works Campbell hopes to encourage viewers to find beauty in the images they see in everyday life.
Campbell’s work has been exhibited extensively in the US and abroad including the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Danforth Museum, MA, the Rose Art Museum, MA Site Santa Fe, NM, the Qiantang Bay Art Museum, China, Galerie Abstract Project, Paris, and the Lesley Heller Gallery, New York. In 2019 Campbell had a 20 year survey of his works at The Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art. He recently exhibited several large works at the Rosenblut and Friedmann Gallery in Madrid.
Campbell has received the prestigious Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant and has participated in several international art projects and residencies in India, Singapore, China, Europe, and South America. Campbell’s work is in many important private and public collections including the Peter Norton Foundation, the Singapore International Arts Foundation, General Dynamics Corporation, Taconic Investment Partners, and the Richard Massey Foundation. He currently sits on the Snug Harbor Arts Advisory Council. Campbell maintains studios in Brooklyn, NY and Cape Cod, MA.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
For years I have used remote control cars, children’s toys, and GPS tracks to make paintings. In 2009 I became fascinated with road repair marks. I see them as amazing abstract sketches and I have created several series based on those lines. The first road repair paintings were made from photos I took of the marks. Recently I have been applying paint directly onto the tar lines, then placing un-stretched canvas on the painted lines and driving a car over the canvas. The extreme pressure from the car results in marks that are unusual and beautiful. After the initial image is created I crop the paintings and paint back into them. I want my work to encourage the viewer to find beauty in the everyday things that might be overlooked.