Since Ferman emerged on the international scene in the late 1980s, his work has been widely exhibited in museums and galleries in Australia as well as in Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United States. Using a combination of negative film, collage and digital manipulation, his photographic series have been based on recurring themes such as decay, the layering of knowledge and the unreliability of memory. Since 2000, Ferman has produced different series of works inspired by fragile botany, Neapolitan archaeology, Shakespearean tragedy, the demise of his mother, the cynicism of the mass media, the night lights of Tokyo and the emptiness of the Australian desert.
Other photographic series like Excavare (2005), San Motorino (2008) and Particle Decay (2017) testify to Ferman’s interest in Italian tradition and culture, and his reflections on the manifestation of synchronous time, where past, present and future collide. Permanent Past (2019) alludes to the peculiarity of the Roman situation, recreating an urban landscape in which 28 centuries of ancient remains and contemporary life coexist. For his 2019 solo at Studio Stefania Miscetti in Rome, Ferman continued his exploration of different methods of how to exhibit his composite images – glossy prints on rolls of unframed paper, photographs mounted on aluminium and monumental video projections. Ferman’s most recent solo exhibition at King Street Gallery, Permanent Past (2023), featured works “that splice images of contemporary Rome with those of historical significance. There are layers of revealing and concealing elements drawn from cinema, architectural forms, etchings and sites of pilgrimage” (Paul Ferman, 2023).
Ferman’s work has been featured in group exhibitions at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Gallese in Italy, Manly Art Museum in Sydney, Galleria Lipanjepuntin in Trieste, and Gallery Wessel + O’Connor in New York.
His 2018 series of superimposed photographs, based on visits to the battlefields of the Western Front in France and Belgium, is part of the Salient exhibition project, which toured to six regional public galleries in New South Wales. Ferman’s large-scale photographs in black + white and colour can be found in the collections of the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, The Chartwell Collection in Christchurch (New Zealand), the Macquarie Bank in Sydney and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart.
Paul lives and works in East Sydney, and has shown with King Street Gallery since 2008.
'Salient: Contemporary artists at the Western Front' is a group exhibition which is travelling across Australia opening at the New England Regional Art Museum in March 2018. A group of twelve leading Australian artists travelled to Belgium and France to the First World War battlefields of the western front. Historian Brad Manera, who had previously travelled with many of the artists to Gallipoli, and artists Wendy Sharpe, Euan Macleod and Amanda Penrose Hart talked with Maria Stoljar about the exhibition.
2023
Permanent Past, King Street Gallery, Sydney
2019
Permanent Past Studio Stefania Miscetti, Rome
2017
Particle decay fractal paradigm King Street Gallery on William, Sydney
2013
Excavare King Street Gallery on William
2012
How can you be surprised by life King Street Gallery on William
2010
Shelter King Street Gallery on William
2008
Necessary illusions Il Ponte Contemporanea, Roma
Surface King Street Gallery on William
2007
Necessary illusions M.O.P. Gallery, Sydney
Proximity abstract particulars Depot 2 Gallery, Sydney
Abstract particulars Il Ponte Contemporanea, Roma
Bolongna art fair Il Ponte Contemporanea
Trance surface civilise Span Gallery, Melbourne
2006
Civilise M.O.P. Gallery, Sydney
Domestic sculpture Span Gallery, Melbourne
Mappying mother surface Depot 2 Gallery, Sydney
2005
Domestic sculpture Il Ponte Contemporanea, Roma
Of uncertain nature Gallery Bencivart, Pesaro, Italy
Tube talk Room 35 Gitte Weise Gallery, Sydney
2004
Survey Front Room Gallery Singapore
2003
Proximity Il Ponte Contemporanea, Roma
2002
Palimpsest Il Ponte Contemporanea, Roma
Palimpsest Dina Carola Gallery, Napoli
2001
Untitled Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
1999
Mitosis – meiosis Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery
Mitosis – meiosis New Zone, Ortona, Italy
Mitosis – meiosis Studio d’Arte Contermporanea
Pino Casagrande Spoleto
1998
Mitosis – meiosis Studio d’Arte Contermporanea
Pino Casagrande Roma
1996
Untitled Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery
Untitled OPTS Gallery, San Francisco
1995
Untitled Studio d’Arte Contemporanra Pino
Casagrande Roma
1994
Untitled Gallerie Anita Neugebauer, Basel Switzerland
1993
Untitled Michael Nagy Fine Art, Sydney
1989
Untitled D.C. Art, Sydney
2021
Babies Are Knocking Studio Stefania Miscetti, Rome
2020
Fisher’s Ghost Art Prize Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney
Mosman Art Prize Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney
2020-2018
Salient, Contemporary Artists at the Western Front New England Regional Art Museum, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, ANZAC Memorial Sydney, Bank Art
2018
Salient Melbourne Australia Club, Melbourne, Vic
Museum Moree, Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre, Tweed Regional Gallery
2013
Looking forward King Street Gallery on William, Sydney
2010
Everything and nothing King Street Gallery on William
2009
In paradise Manly Art Museum, Sydney
2008
MiArt 08 Milani, Italy
2007
BaTTiTi scuola F.Vitale di Ostuni, Ostuni Italy
Bologna art fair Il Ponte Contemporanea
2006
The all Australian show Galleria Paula Verrenga, Salerno, Italy
Exquisite corpse Peleton Gallery, Sydney
Transfigure Melbourne Art Fair
2005
Twenty Wessell + O’Connor Gallery, New York
Felons Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin
Riparte XI Roma
Tripod Spazio ex Deco, Teramo, Italy
The all Australian show Galleria Lipanjepuntin, Trieste, Italy
Room 35 – 8th birthday Gitte Weise Gallery, Sydney
Cologne art fair Bencivartgallery
2004
Riparte X Roma
Ether Il Ponte Contemporanea, Melbourne Art Fair
2003
Celebrate Il Ponte Contemporanea, Roma
2002
Welcome – 02 Palazzo Delle Exposizioni, Roma
2001
Welcome – 01 Mostra d’arte Contemporanea, Roma
1999
Simbiosi Museo di Gallese, Viterbo
1998
Wessell + O’Connor Gallery, New York
Uomo ambiente territorio Vasto Museum, Italy
1997
Riparte III Roma
1996
Art Amsterdam Wastergasabrick, Amsterdam
Riparte II Roma
Click Contemporary Photography, Westergastabriek,
Ripa residence Roma
John, Paul, Annie + Maree Il Ponte
Contemporanea Roma
1995
Riparte I Roma
1991
Queensland Art Gallery
1990
National Gallery of Victoria
1988
Hasselblad Masters, Sydney
1987
Hasselblad Masters, Sydney
Artbank
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris
Chartwell Collection, Christchurch, New Zealand
Galerie Montenay, Paris
Galerie Serieuze Zaken, Amsterdam
Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Qld
Hobart Art Gallery
Macquarie Bank, Sydney
Michael Shapiro Gallery, San Francisco
Pat Corrigan Collection
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
Studio d’Arte Contemporanea, Roma
The Western Front 100 years on: Contemporary artists take stock by Brad Manera
Australian Financial Review
23 March 2018
Fields of Sacrifice by Brad Manera
The Weekend in the Australian Financial Review pg. 28-29
24 March 2018
