British artist Dr Paul Greenleaf works across film, sound and photography splicing dream-like visions with everyday realism. Drawing on influences from sci-fi and popular culture he explores the territory between personal experience and collective memory. Greenleaf’s cinematic installations question notions of time as he pursues possible links between histories, contemporary issues and imagined futures.
In 2022 Paul was awarded a doctorate in fine art in 2022 researching 'Temporal Dislocation & Audiovisual Practice', his thesis connects the work of several artists and theorists including Susan Hiller, Bruce Nauman and Patrick Keiller, French philosopher Jacques Derrida, US film critic Gene Youngblood, Mark Fisher and screenwriter Nigel Kneale.
Greenleaf previously studied post-graduate photography at Central Saint Martins. His work has been shown at The Photographers’ Gallery, Midlands Art Centre and Hestercombe Gallery amongst other places. Awards include the Bar-Tur Photography Award, an Artquest Bursary and short-listing for the Catlin Art Prize. Recent film I Will Become More Powerful Than You Can Possibly Imagine was nominated for best UK Short Film, Open City Documentary Festival 2020. Paul Greenleaf is a visiting lecturer in visual arts at University of East London.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS, Screenings, TALKS
2024 Tea's Times Conference University of the Arts London, Camberwell College of Arts, London
2024 Folkestone Film Festival Folkestone, Kent
2024 InOut Unit2, Gerry Raffles Square, Stratford
2023 States of Exchange Hypha Studios, Stratford
2022 Temporal Dislocation & Audiovisual Practice Fine Art Professional Doctorate Viva, University of East London
2022 Beeston Art Film Festival Beeston, Nottingham
2021 Celestial Bodies Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield
2021 Possible Futures E17 Art Trail, London E17
2020 Open City Documentary Film Festival Digital Edition, UCL
2019 Speaking from the Margins Conference University of East London
2020 Corona Visions Virtual Exhibition Blakefest 2020
2020 Leytonstone Loves Film Leytonstone Library Cinema produced by The Barbican
2020 Between Walls Safe House, Peckham, London
2019 Authenticity in the Arts & Media in an Era of Fake News Conference University of East London
2018-19 Fine Art Professional Doctorate Showcase AVA Gallery, University of East London
2016 Territorial The Cass, London Metropolitan University, London
2016 Hollyshorts Film Festival TCL Chinese 6 Theatres, Hollywood, California
2016 Anthropcene AVA Gallery, University of East London
2016 Wish You Were Here? Hestercombe Gallery, Taunton, Somerset
2015 Wish You Were Here? Midlands Art Centre, Birmingham
2014 The Postcard is a Public Work of Art X Marks the Bökship, London
2012 Reincarnation London Print Studio, London
2012 Resort Transition Gallery, London
2012 Detached Penny Fielding Gallery, London
2011 Catlin Art Prize 5th Anniversary Exhibition The Tramshed, London
2010 The Walthamstow Tapestry (after Grayson Perry) Tower Mews, London
2009 Do Not Feed The Birds Photomonth, Shoreditch, London
2008 Contacts & Correspondence Maverik Showroom, London
2008 Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed 08 The Photographers' Gallery, London
2008 Catlin Art Prize My Life In Art, London
2008 Folkestone Fringe Experimental Sound Weekend Leas Lift, Folkestone
2007 Future Map '07 The Arts Gallery, London
2007 Artisit? 2 Henry Street, Galway, Ireland
2007 Photo Month - Photo Salon Four Corners, London
2007 O Dreamland (Transition Gallery goes to the seaside) Sea Beach House, Greatstone, Kent
Residencies
2020 / 2021 Hearing The Impossible with Matthew Herbert, CAMP, Aulus-les-Bains, France
Collections & Awards
2024 Folkestone Film Festival
2020 Best UK Short Film Award, Open City Documentary Festival - nominated
2016 Hollyshorts Film Festival, selection
2012 Bar-Tur Award - winner, alumni category
2012 Artquest Bursary Award - winner
2008 Catlin Art Prize - finalist
Work is included in:
Zabludowicz Collection, David Roberts' Art Foundation Collection, Richard Greer Collection, The University of the Arts, London Collection, various private collections
Publications / Reviews / Press
2016 Igloo Magazine
2012 Five Dials magazine
2012 A Model of Suburban Living, local Guardian newspaper
2011 Artists' Postcards: A Compendium, Reaktion Books, Jeremy Cooper
2011 Glass Magazine (October/November), Avant Art section
Joerg Colberg's Conscientious
Photo-muse
Le Cool Magazine
Education
2017 - 2022 Professional Doctorate in Fine Art
University of East London
2006 - 2007 Postgraduate Certificate: Photography (distinction)
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts, London
1988 - 1990 BTEC Higher National Diploma in Graphic Design
Central Bedfordshire College, Bedfordshire
1987 - 1988 BTEC Diploma in General Art and Design
Lincoln College of Art, Lincolnshire