Paul Seawright was born in Belfast 1965. He is widely recognised for his early work on the troubles in Northern Ireland, particularly the seriesSectarian Murder(1988) which is in the Hyman Collection.

Seawright’s work is held in many museum collections including the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Tate, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, International Centre of Photography New York, Arts Councils of Ireland, England and Northern Ireland, the UK Government Collection and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome. In 2002 he was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum London as War Artist for Afghanistan and was awarded the Irish Museum of Modern Art/Glen Dimplex award for a major contribution to Irish Art. He represented Wales at the Venice Biennale in 2003. He has published eight monographs and his book and exhibition – Beasts of Burden – on reconciliation in post-genocide Rwanda, was published by Strzelecki Books Cologne. He was awarded an OBE in 2020 for his service to Education and the Arts.