Paul Donald was born and raised in New Zealand before attending the University of Sydney, Australia, where he earned a Masters of Fine Arts degree in painting. After living for several years in Manchester, UK, and then Montreal, Canada, he has settled in Los Angeles. He has worked broadly across painting, sculpture, video, and performance, exhibiting and performing in New Zealand, Australia, UK, Canada, and the USA.
His current works enact a self-demolition by way of construction—construction performances/performances with construction. He makes to break—chipping away at structures of whiteness, masculinity, and colonial subjectivity, one wooden object at a time. He teaches studio art at the Roski School of Art and Design, University of Southern California.
Solo Object Exhibitions
2018 Corpus, St Paul Street Gallery Three, AUT, Auckland, New Zealand; objects and paintings
2016 Endymion Project, CB1 Gallery, Los Angeles, USA; performance and objects
2013 Blind, CB1 Gallery, Los Angeles, USA; sculptural objects, paintings
2013 Cause Way, Miami Beach Urban Studios, Florida International University, Florida, USA; performative installation
2011 Woulden, CB1 Gallery, Los Angeles, USA; sculptural objects
2010 Spill, James Dorahy Project Space, Sydney, Australia; sculptural objects
2010 Untendable, Untitled Gallery, Manchester, UK; sculptural objects
2008 Certainties, Akau Inc, Toronto, Canada; painted paper objects
2008 Drift, James Dorahy Project Space, Sydney, Australia; sculptural objects, paintings
2008 Drift, 20+3 Gallery, Manchester, UK; painted paper objects
2007 Companion, James Dorahy Projects, Sydney, Australia; sculptural objects, paintings
2004 flatware, Room 35, Gitte Weise Gallery, Sydney, Australia; painted sculptural objects
2003 funnylove, Room 35, Gitte Weise Gallery, Sydney, Australia; painted sculptural objects
2002 CMYOK!, Gallery Wren, Sydney, Australia; painted sculptural objects
Performances
2023 Given Take, solo performance as part of Almost Public/Semi-Exposed 8, the Artists Television Access Window Gallery, San Francisco.
2023 Driller | Filler, collaborative performance with Jennifer Locke, as part of Almost Public/Semi-Exposed 8, the Artists Television Access Window Gallery, San Francisco.
2023 Macho Stereo, collaborative performance with Marcus Kuiland-Nazario, as part of Re-Fest, produced by CultureHub, at Hot Shot Muffler, Los Angeles
2022 Recast, Object and performance, installed and performed as part of Illuminate LA, public performance and dialogue event, Grand Avenue Park, Los Angeles
2022 Centaur (Petting Zoo), performed as part of XaMENing Masculinity public performance event produced LAFreeWaves at LA Historic Park, Los Angeles
2020 HouseWork, performed as part of Drive-By-Art (Public Art in this Moment of Social Distancing), WEST of Western, 18th Street, Santa Monica
2019 Moby Dick, performed as part of Soloflex, a performance series presented by Jennifer Locke and Red Zone LA, Los Angeles
2019 UNsettler, performed construction/deconstruction (durational); performed in The Performance Arcade; Follow the Pink Line, Wellington, New Zealand
2019 30lb Duet, collaborative performance with Marcus Kuiland-Nazario, as part of “We the Artists” for The 30th Anniversary of 18th Street Celebration, 18th Street Arts Center, Los Angeles
2018 Away, performative installation (durational); performed and installed in The Performance Arcade; Counter Narratives, Wellington, New Zealand
2011 Would Work: performative installation (durational); performed and installed in Nothing Like Performance group exhibition, Artspace, Sydney, Australia
Selected Object Group Shows
2023 Treasure Islands, include in the group show Pale Blue Dot, curated by Elliot Hundley, Elliot Hundley Studio Gallery.
2017 Hot time, Summer in the City, CB1 Gallery, Los Angeles, USA; painted objects
LACE Benefit Art Auction, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles
Endymion (portion), 2016, installed in HE; Questioning and Queering Masculinity, Last Projects, Los Angeles
2013 Untitled (Studs), installed in Material Traces: Time and the Gesture in Contemporary Art, Galerie Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Montreal, Canada
2010 Fourth, James Dorahy Project Space, Sydney, Australia
2009 Third, James Dorahy Project Space, Sydney, Australia
2008 9 Shades of white, James Dorahy Project Space, Sydney, Australia
2008 Colouring in (Sculpture), James Dorahy Project Space, Sydney, Australia
2007 Paper, James Dorahy Project Space, Sydney, Australia
2007 Shoebox, Bell Street Project Space, Vienna
2006 Lucky 7, James Dorahy Project Space, Sydney, Australia
2006 Hardware, UTS Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2006 Post-it, Peloton, Sydney, Australia
2006 The Drawing Show, G&A Studios, Sydney, Australia
2005 Room 35 turns 8, Room 35, Sydney, Australia
2005 The Fauvette Loureiro Memorial Artists Travelling Scholarship Finalist Exhibition, Sydney College of the Arts Galleries, Sydney, Australia
2005 ABN AMRO Emerging Artists Award, Sydney, Australia
2005 Pump it up baby, China Heights, Sydney, Australia
2005 Rendezvous mit Gitte, Gitte Weise Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2005 matter of fact(s), MOP Projects, Sydney, Australia
2004 a different group, Gitte Weise Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2004 Paul Donald & Sarah Newall, Gallery Wren, Sydney, Australia
2004 2 for 1, MOP Projects, Sydney, Australia
2004 The Contemporary Collection Benefactors Auction, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
2004 Meaningful, First Draft Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2003 2 for 1, MOP Projects, Sydney, Australia
2003 informé, Australia Embassy, France
2003 An Intimate Affair, Phatspace, Sydney, Australia
2003 informé, Australia Centre, Berlin
2003 The Miniature, Phatspace, Sydney, Australia
2003 Terme, First Draft Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2002 Salon, Phatspace, Sydney, Australia
2002 Powerplay, First Draft Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2002 With Matthys Gerber, Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2002 Drawing: a line, Gallery Wren, Sydney, Australia
2002 International Box Project, Gallerie Jangva, Finland
2002 Fuck Art Lets Thrash, Gallery Wren, Sydney, Australia
2002 Parallel Structures, 200 Gertrude St., Melbourne, Australia
2002 International Box Project; Extra Terrestrial, Fabric Abstraction Collective, Poland
2002 Pretty Amusing, Gallery Wren, Sydney, Australia
2001 Parallel Structures, Southbank Centre, Brisbane, Australia
2001 Box, Gallery Wren, Sydney, Australia
2000 Painting Show, Joes Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2000 Driver, Newspace, Sydney, Australia
2000 Repeat after me, Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney, Australia