Dr. Paul Greenleaf is a British artist and academic working across photography, film, sound, and installation, splicing dream-like visions with everyday realism. Greenleaf’s multi-media practice draws on influences from sci-fi and popular culture. His work explores notions of time and technological mediation by foregrounding traces of obsolescence such as grain, crackle and hiss – degradation caused by mechanical and digital processing that highlight the uncanny nature of recording processes. Through these strategies, his work reflects on how memory is recorded, distorted and re-experienced across time, situating narratives within broader cultural and technological histories.

 

In 2022 Paul completed a doctorate in fine art researching Temporal Dislocation & Audiovisual Practice. His thesis connects the work of artists and theorists including Susan Hiller, Bruce Nauman, Patrick Keiller, Nigel Kneale Jacques Derrida and Mark Fisher. 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 senior lecturer in visual arts at University of East London (UEL).

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS, Screenings, TALKS

2024 FarFarOut Way Out East Gallery, UEL
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, UEL
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 UEL
2020 Corona Visions Virtual Exhibition Blakefest Online
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 UEL
2018-19 Fine Art Professional Doctorate Showcase AVA Gallery, UEL
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 Gallery, London
2008 Folkestone Fringe Experimental Sound Weekend Leas Lift, Folkestone
2007 Future Map '07 The Arts Gallery, University of the Arts, 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

2024 Modern Composition with Gavin Bryars, CAMP, Aulus-les-Bains, France
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
2012 Bar-Tur Award - winner, alumni category
2012 Artquest Bursary Award - winner
2008 Catlin Art Prize - finalist
Work is included in:
Zabludowicz Collection, The Roberts Institute of Art Collection, Richard Greer Collection, The University of the Arts, London Collection, various private collections