BIOGRAPHY _________________________________________________________
Paolo Puck is a British-born artist currently residing in Lisbon. Originally trained as an illustrator, he now works primarily in sculpture; a field in which he is self-taught. Puck’s work plays with topics relating to beauty and ugliness, and he uses his sculpture as a way to explore the point at which one becomes the other. By combining grotesque imagery with a soft and pleasing resolution of form, his work presents a contrast between the familiar and the foreign, the safe and the dangerous, the inviting and the unsettling.
Best known for his bizarre, whimsical, and dreamlike creations rendered in needle-felted wool, Puck’s sculptures give viewers a glimpse of a world inspired by myths and fairytales, Jungian theory, and Gnosticism. His work often includes elements influenced by early civilization art from the Bronze and Iron Ages as well as classical Greek, ancient Roman, and Medieval artwork.
With the characters he creates and the archetypes they represent, Puck invites the viewer to contemplate topics ranging from hidden and contrasting identities, authoritarianism, greed, power, helplessness, and our temporary and fragile nature. As always, Puck explores these topics with humor and a hard-won sense of optimism.
Paolo Puck received his BFA from the University of the West of England. Press for his work includes Juxtapoz Magazine, Hi-Fructose, It’s Nice That, Booooooom, and Colossal. Puck has exhibited both in the United States and abroad, with exhibitions at Nucleus Portland, Portland, OR; Samek Art Museum, Lewisburg, PA; Jonathan Levine Gallery, NY, NY; and the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.