Paul Snell
1968
(AUSTRALIA)
AUSTRALIAN
Paul Snell is an Australian artist whose practice invites viewers into a contemplative space—a suspended moment where time feels paused and the pull of forward momentum is momentarily stilled. His work replaces the constant saturation of our image-driven world with moments of stillness, omission, and quiet reflection, offering a grounding experience where beauty is found in presence rather than progress. He lives and works in Launceston, Tasmania.
Education
Snell earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts at University of Tasmania in 1989, his BFA (Honors) from the University of Tasmania in 1995, and his Masters of Contemporary Arts from the University of Tasmania in 2011.
Technique
Snell creates small production runs, printing each unique work in an edition of one to three. His process begins by capturing a location or an object. He then digitally “decodes” the visual information present in that image. After reducing and simplifying the colors and forms, he begins an intensive “re-coding” process, during which the reduced formal elements of the work evolve their own self-referential relationships within a new composition. This process blurs the boundary between “taking” and “making” a photograph. When the digital composition is complete, Snell converts it into a Chromogenic print using the Fujiflex printing system, which allows luminous, vibrant, colorful photographic printing onto metallic paper. The print is then mounted onto Plexiglass. Blurring the boundaries between photography and painting, Snell merges digital processes with materiality to explore abstraction and minimalism in contemporary photo-media. By stripping images of representational clarity, he allows abstract forms to emerge, engaging the senses and creating new visual languages that bypass traditional narrative. Snell’s work interrogates the evolving nature of photographic production—manipulating and exploiting digital data to invent new visual forms. He examines the shifting relationships between making and taking photographs, between painting and photography, and between object and screen. Within this dynamic interplay, surface and edge, reflection and absorption become central concerns. These are not representations of reality—they are their own realities. In a world overloaded with visual stimuli, Snell’s works create a space to pause, feel, and simply be.
Inspiration
Inspired by 20th-century modernist artists, Snell distills form and colour to their essence through reduction, repetition, and synthesis. His works have a distinctly painterly impact, described by critics as "digital painting." They delve into the emotional and sensory power of colour, investigating optics, light, and materiality through rhythmic pairing, sequencing, and layering. The visual lexicon Snell has developed is informed by the Modernist history of painting, especially minimalism and hard edged abstraction. Snell has described his artistic practice as a search for “sensory understanding of the physical object.”
Relevant Quotes
Describing his work Snell has said, “These pieces are not representations of certain realities; they are their own reality. The absence of signs or objects invites the viewer to drift among primal and tonal aesthetic matter. The aim has been to immerse the viewer in color, rhythm and space, creating a sensory experience of inner contemplation and transcendence.”
Exhibitions
Snell has exhibited his work extensively throughout Australia and Tasmania, and selectively in the United States.
Collections
His work is included in numerous public and private collections, including that of Louis Vuitton, Asia; Tiffany & Co, US, Asia, Australia; ArtBank; the Devonport Regional Gallery; the Burnie Regional Gallery, and the Justin House Museum.
Galleries
Studio Gallery - Melbourne and Brisbane
Gallery9 - Sydney
Gallery Red - Spain
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