Biography

Paul Coldwell is Professor of Fine Art at the University of the Arts London.
As an artist, he has exhibited widely, his work included in numerous public collections, including Tate, V&A, British Museum, the Arts Council of England and Yale Centre for British Art. Recent solo exhibitions include A Layered Practice Graphic Work 1993-2012 University of Kent & University of Greenwich and Re-Imagining Scott: Objects & Journeys Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge.
He regularly contributes to Print Quarterly, Printmaking Today & Art in PrintHe was keynote at Impact 7 and his book Printmaking; A Contemporary Perspective was published Publishing in 2010.

Themed Panel (Suggested)

The practice-based PhD in Printmaking
The practice – based PhD in art and design has become an expanding field and a natural route of progression from MA. Printmaking provides a fertile ground for research and investigation, combining as it does practical skills with the challenges of new technology as well as a rich history and theoretical underpinning.
However, there are still considerable misunderstandings about what constitutes a PhD and the role that an artist’s practice can play in examining their chosen research question. This panel will take three panellists as case studies, each of whom have negotiated their PhD within the context of printmaking. By introducing their research question and methodology, the aim of the session is to open up discussion on what it means to research in art & design, the problems and maybe the risks. It will also serve as a platform for a Q&A session following the individual presentations.
The Panel will be chaired by Professor Paul Coldwell and Marian Crawford. Professor Paul Coldwell has experience both as a supervisor and examiner. His current role at Chelsea College of Art & Design involves chairing the Research Degrees sub committee which oversees the progress of over 100 research degree students. Marian Crawford is coordinator of Printmedia and Artist Book Studios at Monash University Art Design & Architecture, Melbourne where supervision and examination of research candidates are a significant component of her academic responsibilities.

Illustrated Talk

A Layered Practice-Paul Coldwell Graphic Works 1993-2012
New Technologies and Print:
This illustrated talk considers my own practice in relationship to a survey exhibition of my prints staged at University of Kent in 2013 and curated by Dr Ben Thomas. This exhibition provides a focus for the relationship I have developed between new and old technologies and traces the manner in which my preoccupation with the surface and the graphic mark have led to hybrid approaches. Over this twenty-year period I have not only worked with purely digital images but also screen prints, lithography and relief, increasingly combining processes in order to make the layering of the image more apparent.
Embedded with in this has been an attempt to integrate the languages of photography and drawing. The screen of half-tone dots, so characteristic of Coldwell’s prints, accentuates the surface, sometimes frustrating our perceptions, but also acting like a semi-permeable membrane through which we access the image. (Ben Thomas)  For me the half tone is the means through which traditionally the photographic image entered the world of printmaking and reproduction. Digital technology has transformed the half tone screen from a fixed analogue system to one, which is fluid allowing for both the photographic elements and the drawn to be equally malleable.

Illustrated Talk 2

‘Scott’s Last Journey’
Print on the Peripheries:Mapping the Unknown, Visualising the Invisible, Remote Environments: Land and Labels
In May 2013, following a period of research in the archives of the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge I staged an exhibition of graphic works and sculptures in their small museum in response to the idea of Scott’s last journey. I have often worked with collections and archives, Freud’s Coat- Freud Museum, London, Morandi’s Legacy-Estorick Collection and I called while you were out – Kettle’s Yard. This illustrated talk explores strategies that I have adopted for working with archives and considers the relationship with both the archive and the reputation of the subject.
The talk will primarily focus on the Scott project and how I have approached this iconic figure. Furthermore, as someone with no desire to go to either pole, I will demonstrate approaches that I adopted to begin to construct imagined landscapes. The work for the Scott project includes prints, multiples, postcards and sculptures. The project raises questions about the value of the artist in the archive and how as an independent artist working with a collection can bring new perspectives to bear.