Unique in contemporary British art, Paul Yates has sustained a highly original creative output across poetry, painting, and film for over four decades. His poetry has been translated into several languages, his films have won various international awards and his paintings feature in important private, public, and royal collections.
Born in Belfast in 1954, Yates began writing and painting at an early age encouraged by his then high school English teacher, the artist, Jack Pakenham. His paintings were first exhibited at the Tom Caldwell Gallery in Belfast at the age of 18.
Recently one of his works was acquired for the legendary La Colombe d’Or collection in the South of France. Yates has a high cull rate and works may remain in his studio for many years before the right brush strokes or mark-makings brings them “into land” as he is wont to say.
Throughout his career, Yates has maintained an extremely private personal profile, declining interviews and rarely attending exhibition openings. Over recent years he has exhibited exclusively in the South of France. The work on show at Fraser Gallery St Andrews is his first exposition in the UK since 2010, when a major group of his paintings was shown at the Tom Caldwell gallery in Belfast, Northern Ireland.