“This is a deeply personal and timely project, emerging from the halfway point of living between Australia and England, and shaped by a late diagnosis of AuDHD.” Paula Mary

“A life spent half here, half there, belonging nowhere - a new body of work that investigates the layered relationships between place, identity and neurodivergent perception. This is a deeply personal and timely project, emerging from the halfway point of living between Australia and England, and shaped by a late diagnosis of AuDHD. 

Informed by my neurodivergence and dual heritage, my practice explores the shifting spaces between belonging and estrangement. Through contrasts of motion and calmness, inner conflict and outward stillness, I examine the interplay between self and environment to capture the energy of introspection and complexities of the emotional undertow of my lived experience.

My work explores landscape, not as a literal place but as a representation of memory. Home becomes both a resting place and an uncertain terrain, formed through echoes of land and memory, a space where forms dissolve into mere suggestions and gestural marks evolve into shapes that hover between recognition and abstraction. 

Ambiguity is intentional - symbolic haziness, tonal atmospheres, and layered impressions invite viewers to coexist with mystery rather than resolve it.”

Paula Mary is a mixed-media artist based in South London. She studied graphic design at art college and has a background as a props buyer, set dresser and stylist for film and television. Her work has been exhibited across venues in South East London - including a solo exhibition at Copper Beech Cafe - and at various group exhibitions, such as Liberation Art Gallery in Brighton. Paula has also participated in the Crystal Palace Artists’ Open House and Dulwich Festival Artists' Open House.

Opening times: West Norwood Picturehouse | West Norwood Cinema | Showtimes