Paul Coldwell (born 1952) is a British artist.
Born in London, he studied fine art at the West of England College of Art from 1972-75 and then studied printmaking at postgraduate level at the Slade School of Art 1975-77 where his teachers included Barto. Dos Santos and Stanley Jones. He was employed as research assistant at the Slade from 1978-81. He was appointed Subject Leader MA Printmaking at Camberwell College of Arts in 1997 and 1998 took over as project leader for a research project The Integration of Computers within Fine art practice developing his interest in the use of digital technology within Printmaking. [1] He curated Computers & Printmaking with Tessa Sidey, for Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery 1999 and has further developed these concerns through an AHRC funded project The Personalised Surface within Fine Art Digital Printmaking. [www.arts.ac.uk/research/digitalsurface] In 2001 he was appointed Professor at The London Institute (now The University of the Arts London). [2] His curatorial practice includes Digital Responses for the V&A 2002-03 and Morandi’s Legacy;Influences on British Art for the Estorick Collection London and Abbot Hall Cumbria 2006 which explored his long term interest in this Italian artist. His interest in working with collections and other artists is further evidenced in the installation of his work in the house, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, 2008 entitled I called while you were out. In addition to his teaching and studio practice, he worked with Paula Rego on all her etchings between 1985-2005 including the Nursery Rhymes and Peter Pan. He wrote the catalogue Paula Rego Printmaker 2005 to accompany her traveling print retrospective and authored a chapter on her printmaking technique in Paula Rego-The complete Graphic work, TG Rosenthal, Thames & Hudson. His book, Printmaking: A Contemporary Perspective provides a broad overview of the history of printmaking with a focus on contemporary approaches to both new and old print technologies.
Coldwell's practice embraces printmaking, bookworks and sculpture. He has exhibited widely, solo exhibitions include Kafka’s Doll & other works, Eagle Gallery London 2007, Case Studies, London Print Studio and Queens Gallery, New Delhi, By this I mean… Arthouse Dublin,1999 and Freud’s Coat, Freud Museum London 1996. He has been selected to represent UK at the Ljubljana Print Biennial in 2005 & 1997, selected for the International Print Triennial, Cracow 2000, 2003 & 2006 and included in the exhibition Prints Now V&A London 2006. His bookworks include, Freud’s Coat, With the Melting of the Snows (with text by the then BBC War Correspondent Martin Bell) and Kafka’s Doll with text by the poet and author Anthony Rudolf. His work is held in numerous collections including Tate, Imperial War Museum, V&A, British Museum, Arts Council of England and New York Public Library.