My work is a personalised abstraction of contemporary life, painted on canvas, in an attempt to capture the physical and non-physical phenomena associated with urban life and human subliminal perceptions and experiences of a city. My paintings do not so much depict or suggest places and situations as express thoughts and feelings and as such have a universal language. The social and political disruption caused by community strife, dislocation, alienation and poverty are in clear evidence in my home town, Belfast.
In November 2017, I organised NO WALLS, an international contemporary visual and performance arts exhibition held in the Titanic Building, Belfast. The artists were KRM, French/German couple, John Costi, London and myself and we chose Belfast for symbolic reasons. The launch was sponsored by EU Commission NI. As part of the exhibition old French posters placed on the floor of the gallery become a communicative vehicle as visitors were invited to write expressions on them. I also collaborated with Mark Ervine, a Belfast muralist to create a mural on the wall between interface gates onto which the French publicity posters were placarded for further comment by the public. NO WALLS promotes peace, human rights, personal introspection and free communication through art. Wherever there is war, segregation, alienation, homelessness, false imprisonment or discrimination there is need for thought-provoking art and human communication which art can accommodate.
I aim to express the more abstract, contradictory and often chaotic aspects of contemporary life in any city; its ambience, dynamism, rhythms, humour and dislocation pushing to illustrate the socio political obstacle course of yesteryear that Belfast presented.
I currently have work in private collections in Ireland, France, England, Spain and Africa.
Paul Doran has created a variety of pieces collected throughout Ireland, France, England, Spain and Africa. His repertoire of work includes not only creating works of mixed media, but coordinating arts exhibitions like NO WALLS. Doran’s works recall artists like Twombly and Basquiat. Focused on social and political strife and embracing the energy of chaos in his work, Doran produces powerful and striking pieces of mixed media.
BA Hons 2.1 Fine Art, Liverpool Hope University 2011
'Transition' Cornerstone Gallery, Liverpool, England.