In the classic Sicilian novel The Leopard, two young lovers explore the rooms of a crumbling palace. In a suite formerly given over to sensuality, they find a wall where the damp had marked the walls high up and also perhaps low down at a man’s height, where it had assumed strange shapes, odd thickness, dark tints.
Paul Giuffrida, of Sicilian and Welsh descent, captures in his work similar marks left by the passing of people, nature and time through buildings and structures Drawing on his surroundings of industrial decay in Wales and his ancestral background of layered Mediterranean civilisations, Giuffrida’s work comes into being through destructive processes (scratching, scoring, tearing, breaking and burning) as much as the creative (painting, sculpting, binding and nailing).
What we are looking may seem at first to be the surface but in fact it is the revealed interior of the work; skinned, gutted and scarred. The resulting careful constructions and considered textures are collages of memory, of long pasts and long shadows.
Although we may be looking for the first time, there is a familiarity to the works. If viewers typically see their own meaning in artworks, then in Giuffrida’s, perhaps, they can see the longue dure of their own histories.
Andrew Deathe – 2006
Born , Swansea, Wales 1956
1973 – 1975 Newport college of Art and Design
1976 – 1979 Cardiff College of Art – B.A. (hons.) Fine Art
Exhibitions
2023 Studio Cennen Faifach Llandeilo
2023 Form Gallery – 4 Market Street, Nailsworth GL60BX
2022 Poems Psalms and Songs Studio Cennen Faifach Llandeilo. Exhibition 17th November to 17th December 2022
2022 Form Gallery – Nailsworth
2021 Form Gallery – Nailsworth
2020 Form Gallery – Nailsworth
2018 Cube Gallery, Marylebone, London
2017 Christmas Show – Cube Gallery, Marylebone, London
2017 Welcome to Town, Llanrhidian, Swansea
2017 Solo Show – Volcano Theatre, Swansea. Selected by Erin Rickard
2016-17 Austerity Nostalgia, Gallery Simpson , Swansea curated by Catrin James.
2016 Christmas Show – Nick Holly Gallery, Swansea
2016 Swansea Studios Exhibition – Swansea Museum
2016 Cube Gallery, Bristol and London
2016 Nick Holly Gallery, Swansea
2015 Affordable Art Fair – Battersea London, with Cube Gallery
2015 New Work – Nick Holly Gallery, Swansea
2015 Cube Gallery, Bristol and London
2014 Winter Exhibition – Nick Holly Gallery, Swansea
2014 `Dylan Inspired`celebrates the life of Dylan Thomas – Nick Holly Gallery, Swansea
2014 World Landscape Exhibition – Cube Gallery, Bristol
2013 Winter Exhibition – Nick Holly Gallery, Swansea
2013 Swansea Studios Exhibition – Swansea Museum
2013 Affordable Art Fair – New York, with Cube Gallery
2013 Spring Exhibition – Nick Holly Gallery, Swansea
2013 Cube Gallery, Bristol and London
2012 Christmas Exhibition – St. David’s Hall, Cardiff
2012 Affordable Art Exhibition – St. David’s Hall, Cardiff
2012 Affordable Art Fair – Stockholm, with Cube Gallery
2012 Tros Gynnal Children’s Charity Exhibition – Swansea Museum
2012 Mixed Show – Nick Holly Studio Gallery, Swansea
2012 International Art Fair 20-21 – Royal College of Art, London
2012 Welsh Artist of the Year Exhibition – St. David’s Hall, Cardiff
2012 Affordable Art Fair – Brussels, with Cube Gallery
2012 Looking Forward – Art Matters, Tenby
2012 Winter Exhibition – Nick Holly Gallery, Swansea
2012 Cube Gallery, Bristol and London
2011 Christmas Show – St. David’s Hall, Cardiff
2011 Affordable Art Fair, Battersea, London
2011 Jane Phillips Award Auction
2011 Cube Gallery, London
2011 Open 11 – Rhondda Heritage Park
2011 Nick Holly Gallery, Swansea
2011 Welsh Artist of the Year Exhibition – St. David’s Hall, Cardiff
2011 Art Matters, Tenby
2011 Cube Gallery, Bristol
2010 Swansea Studios Exhibition – Swansea Museum
2010 Christmas Exhibition – Oriel Canfas, Cardiff
2010 Christmas Exhibition – St. David’s Hall, Cardiff
2010 Nick Holly Gallery, Swansea
2010 In House Art – Swansea Museum
2010 Welsh Artists in Rome – Biblioteca Casanatense, Rome
2010 Cambridge Art Fair and Chelsea Art Fair, London
2010 Affordable Art Fair, Bristol
2010 Affordable Art Fair, Brussels
2010 Affordable Art Fair, Paris
2009 Christmas Showcase – St. David’s Hall, Cardiff
2009 Tros Gynnal Children’s Charity Exhibition and Auction – Swansea Museum
2009 Open Exhibition – Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
2009 Cambridge Art Fair
2009 Chelsea Art Fair, London
2009 Affordable Art Fair – Bristol and Battersea, London
2009 20|21 International Art Fair – Royal College of Art, London
2009 Edinburgh Art Fair
2009 Affordable Art Fair, Amsterdam
2009 Affordable Art Fair, Brussels
2009 Welsh Artist of the Year Exhibition – St. David’s Hall, Cardiff
2009 Christmas Exhibition – Crane Gallery, Swansea
2008 Christmas Showcase – St. David’s Hall, Cardiff
2008 Autumn Open Exhibition – Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
2008 Welsh Artist of the Year Exhibition – St. David’s Hall, Cardiff
2008 Open 08 – Mission Gallery, Swansea
2008 Spring Show – Crane Gallery, Swansea
2008 Affordable Art Fair Bristol and Battersea, London
2008 Form : London
2008 Edinburgh Art Fair and Chelsea Art Fair, London
2007/8 ‘Second Helping’ Bordeaux Quay Restaurant, Bristol
2007 Christmas Exhibition – Crane Gallery, Swansea
2007 Autumn Open Exhibition – Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
2007 Swansea Open – Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
2007 Summer Show – Crane Gallery, Swansea
2007 New View – Mission Gallery, Swansea
2007 Summer Exhibition – Royal Academy of Art, London
2007 Edinburgh Art Fair
2007 Affordable Art Fair, Bristol
2007 Affordable Art Fair, London
2007 Gateshead Art Fair, Newcastle
2007 Paul Giuffrida and Neil Clarke – Crane Gallery, Swansea
2007 Mixed Show – Washington Gallery, Penarth
2007 Winter Group Exhibition – Attic Gallery, Swansea
2007 Travellers Tales – Long Gallery, Swansea Museum
2006 Crane Gallery, Swansea
2006 Cube Gallery, Bristol
2006 Art Ireland, Dublin
2006 New Paintings by Past Prize Winners – Art Matters Gallery, Tenby
2006 Affordable Art Fair, Battersea, London
2006 Swansea Open – Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
2006 Open06 – Rhondda Heritage Park
2005 Open Exhibition – Winner of The Derwent People’s Prize – Art Matters Gallery, Tenby
2005 Open05 – Rhondda Heritage Park
2005 Exhibiting with Art Matters Gallery, Tenby
2004 Oriel Davies Open – Newtown, Powys
2004 Swansea Open – Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
2004 Open 04 – Rhondda Heritage Park (Prize winner)
2004 Signature Art Gallery, Summer Show, Swansea
2003 Swansea Open Exhibition – Glynn Vivian, Swansea
1997 Aspects of Wales, Pontardawe Swansea
1996 Aspects of Wales, Pontardawe Swansea
1980 Swansea Branch AADW, Arts Workshop, Swansea
1979 Coming Out, Selected New Welsh Graduates – Oriel, Cardiff
1978 Stowells Trophy exhibition, Diploma Gallery – Royal Academy of Art, London