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BIOGRAPHY

Since he emerged on the international scene in the late 1980s, multimedia artist Paul Ferman’s work has been widely exhibited in museums and galleries in Australia and Italy, but also in Ireland, The Netherlands, Switzerland and the U.S. Using a combination of negative film, collage and digital manipulation, his photographic series have been based on such recurring themes as decay, the layering of knowledge and the unreliability of memory. Since 2000, Ferman has produced different series of works inspired by fragile botany, Neapolitan archaeology, Shakespearean tragedy, the demise of his mother, the cynicism of the mass media, the night-lights of Tokyo and the emptiness of the Australian desert.

 

Other photographic series like Excavare (2005), San Motorino (2008) and Particle Decay (2017) testify to Ferman’s interest in Italian tradition and culture, and his reflections about the manifestation of synchronous time, when the past, present and future collide. Permanent Past (2019) alludes to the peculiarity of the Roman situation, recreating an urban landscape in which 28 centuries of ancient remains and contemporary life coexist. For his 2019 solo at Studio Stefania Miscetti in Rome, Ferman continued his exploration of different methods of how to exhibit his composite images - glossy prints on rolls of unframed paper, photographs mounted on aluminium and monumental video projections.

 

Ferman’s solo shows include at the King Street Gallery, M.O.P. and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney, Span Gallery in Melbourne, Galleria Il Ponte Contemporanea and InternoVentidue in Rome, Pino Casagrande in Spoleto, Bencivart in Pesaro, Anita Neugebauer in Basel, OPTS in San Francisco and Front Room Gallery in Singapore. His works have also been featured in group exhibitions at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Gallese in Italy, Manly Art Museum in Sydney, Galleria Lipanjepuntin in Trieste, and Gallery Wessel + O’Connor in New York. His 2018 series of superimposed photographs based on visits to the battlefields of the Western Front in France and Belgium is part of the Salient exhibition project, which toured to six regional public galleries in New South Wales. Ferman’s large-scale photographs in black + white and colour can be found in the collections of the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, The Chartwell Collection in Christchurch (New Zealand), the Macquarie Bank in Sydney and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart.

COLLECTIONS
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  • Macquarie Bank, Sydney

  • Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris

  • Michael Shapiro Gallery, San Francisco

  • Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

  • Galerie Montenay, Paris

  • Galerie Serieuze Zaken, Amsterdam

  • Chartwell Collection, Christchurch, New Zealand

  • Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, Australia

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AWARDS
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  • 2009 - Gold Coast Art Prize (painting), Gold Coast City Gallery, Queensland

  • 2009- Fisher’s Ghost Art Prize, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney

  • 2008- Albany Art Prize, Western Australia

  • 2007- Josephine Ulrick-Win Schubert Photography Prize, Gold Coast City Gallery (First Prize)

  • 2007- Pat Corrigan Acquisitive Award, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne (First Prize)

  • 2006- City of Hobart Art Prize, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, Australia

SOLO EXHIBITIONS​
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2023    Permanent Past, King Street Gallery on William, Sydney

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2019    Permanent Past, Studio Stefania Miscetti, Rome

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2017    Particle Decay, King Street Gallery on William, Sydney

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2015    Abstract Particulars, Version 2, Olympic Park, Sydney

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2013    Excavare, King Street Gallery on William, Sydney

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2012    How can you be surprised by life, King Street Gallery on                            William,Sydney

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2010    Shelter and Saint Motorino, King Street Gallery on William,                       Sydney

 

2008    Necessary Illusions, Galleria Interno Ventidue, Roma
2008    Surface, King Street Gallery on William, Sydney

 

2007    Necessary Illusions, M.O.P. Gallery, Sydney
2007    Proximity & Abstract Particulars, Depot 2 Gallery, Sydney
2007    Abstract Particulars, Il Ponte Contemporanea, Roma
2007    Trance, Surface & Civilise, Span Gallery, Melbourne

 

2006    Civilise, M.O.P. Gallery, Sydney
2006    Domestic Sculpture, Span Gallery, Melbourne
2006    Mapping Mother & Surface, Depot Gallery, Sydney

 

2005    Domestic Sculpture (The All Australian Show), Il Ponte                               Contemporanea, Roma
2005    Of Uncertain Nature, Bencivart Gallery, Pesaro, Italy
2005    Tube Talk, Room 35, Gitte Weise Gallery, Sydney

 

2004    Survey, Front Room Gallery, Singapore

 

2003    Proximity, Il Ponte Contemporanea, Roma

 

2002    Palimpsest, Il Ponte Contemporanea, Roma
2002    Palimpsest, Galleria Dina Caróla, Napoli, Italy

 

2001    Untitled, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

2001    Palimpsest, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

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1999    Mitosis – meiosis, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
1999    Mitosis – meiosis, New Zone, Ortona, Italy
1999    Mitosis – meiosis, Studio d’Arte Contemporanea Pino                                 Casagrande, Spoleto, Italy

1999    Stately European Portraiture, Il Ponte Contemporanea, Roma

 

1998    Mitosis – meiosi, Studio d’Arte, Contemporanea Pino                                   Casagrande, Spoleto, Italy

 

1996    Untitled, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
1996    Untitled, OPTS Gallery, San Francisco

 

1995    Untitled, Studio d’Arte Contemporanea Pino Casagrande, Roma

 

1994    Untitled, Gallerie Anita Neugebauer, Basel, Switzerland

 

1993    Hand  Work, Michael Nagy Fine Art, Sydney

 

1989    Untitled, D.C. Art Gallery, Sydney

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

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2021   Fisher’s Ghost Art Prize (Finalist), Campbelltown Arts Centre,                  Sydney
2021   Babies Are Knocking, Studio Stefania Miscetti, Rome

 

2020   Fisher’s Ghost Art Prize (Finalist), Campbelltown Arts Centre,                  Sydney
2020   Mosman Art Prize (Finalist), Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney

 

2018-20 Salient, Contemporary Artists at the Western Front – touring                exhibition

 

2017    Particle Decay Fractal Paradigm (End of Year), King Street                         Gallery on William, Sydney

 

2015    Survey of International Photography, Olsen Irvin Gallery, Sydney

 

2013    Looking Forward, King Street Gallery, Sydney

 

2012    Five Photo-based artists – Azzopardi, Ferman, Grome, McRae,                 Yang,  Ausin Tung Gallery, Melbourne

 

2010    End of Year, King Street Gallery, Sydney

 

2009    In Paradise, Manly Art Museum

 

2008    MiArt 08, Milano, Italy

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2007    BaTTiTi, Scuola S.Vitale, Ostuni, Italy
2007    Bologna Art Fair – Il Ponte Contemporanea

 

2006    Exquisite Corpse, Peleton Gallery, Sydney
2006    Transfigure, Melbourne Art Fair

 

2005    Twenty, Wessel + O’Connor Gallery, New York, USA
2005    Felons, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland
2005    Riparte XI, Roma, Italy
2005    Tripod, Spazio ex Deco, Teramo, Italy
2005    The All Australian Show, Galleria Lipanjepuntin, Trieste, Italy
2005    Room 35 – 8th Birthday, Gitte Weise Gallery, Sydney
2005    Cologne Art Fair, Bencivart Gallery, Germany

 

2004    Peace Island (curated by Francesca Pietracci), Circolo degli                       Ufficiali, Biennale di Venezia, Italy
2004    Riparte X, Roma
2004    Ether, Il Ponte Contemporanea, Melbourne Art Fair

 

2003    Celebrate, Il Ponte Contemporanea, Roma

 

2002    Welcome – 02, Palazzo delle Esposizione, Roma

 

2001    Welcome – 01, Palazzo delle Esposizione, Roma

 

1999    Simbiosi, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Gallese, Viterbo, Italy

 

1998    Wessel + O’Connor Gallery, New York
1998    Uomo Ambiente Territorio, Vasto Museum, Italy

 

1997    Riparte III, Roma
1997    Globe-Trotter, Il Ponte Contemporanea, Roma

 

1996    Art Amsterdam, Westergasfabriek, Amsterdam
1996    Riparte II, Roma
1996    Click, Contemporary Photography, Ripa Residence, Roma
1996    John, Paul, Annie + Maree, Il Ponte Contemporanea, Roma

 

1995    Riparte I, Roma

 

1990    Hallmark Photographic Awards, National Gallery of Victoria,                     (touring exhibition)

 

1988    Hasselblad Masters, Sydney

 

1987    Hasselblad Masters, Sydney

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