Paul P.

Paul P. is contemporary Canadian artist known for his drawings and paintings of young men. Influenced by the works of John Singer Sargent and James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Paul P. creates gothic imagery of bohemian youths and their milieu; in dreamy contexts, they surf, explore archaic landscapes, and sleep with—or simply observe—one another.
Paul P.’s work in oil paint and watercolor, as well as his print editions, consistently capture moody, sensual, and tranquil moments. Running the gamut from intimate portraiture to seascapes, motionless buildings, and natural landscapes, the artist’s imagery retains a studied quietness and often draws analogies between the human body and its surroundings. Understated color combinations, rich atmospheric compositions, permeating sexual desire, and an undeniably timelessness all mark Paul P.’s work.
The artist depicts his subjects—whose images are culled from 1970s gay pornography as well as his own snapshots—with a delicate reverence. “The figures in my work—anonymous and interchangeable—are caught in the moment of change, when they are successfully removed from their context, freed from degradation,” he said of his work. “I am searching for analogies and the touching of hands between the past and the present.”
Born in 1977 in Canada, P. earned his BFA from York University, and later worked as a studio assistant for the renowned artist Stephen Andrews. In 2001, he exhibited his first portraits of young men, many of which were inspired by source material from the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archive. In recent years the artist’s interests in transience, desire, cataloging, and notation has expanded to include landscapes and their abstraction, and to sculptural works in the form of furniture. P. currently lives and works between Paris, France and Toronto, CA. Today, his works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, and the Brooklyn Museum, among others.