Jody Paulsen was born in 1987 in Cape Town, South Africa, where he currently to live and work. In 2009 Paulsen graduated from the University of Cape Town’s Michaelis School of Fine Arts, with a specialisation in Print Media. He was awarded the Katrine Harries Print Cabinet Award in the same year. In 2012, Paulsen received the Jules Kramer Departmental Scholarship Award and went on to complete his Masters Degree at the University of Cape Town in 2013.

Paulsen’s notable solo exhibitions include 2023’s Open Arms, at SMAC Gallery, in Cape Town, South Africa; and a solo presentation at MiArt 2023, in Milan, Italy; 2021’s Something About the Water at Galerie Droste in Birkenstrasse, Düsseldorf; a presentation of new works for SMAC Gallery’s ongoing Artist Room series, at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town in 2020; Water Me at SMAC Gallery in Johannesburg, South Africa (2018); and Pushing Thirty at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town, South Africa (2017). SMAC Gallery has also presented solo booths of Paulsen’s work at both The Armory Show in New York City, USA (2019) and Untitled Art in Miami Beach, USA (2017).

Paulsen’s work has been shown in a number of group exhibitions, including Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), Cape Town, South Africa, with SMAC Gallery, in 2022 and 2023; FNB Art Joburg, with SMAC Gallery, in Johannesburg, in 2022; Within the Fold, at SMAC Gallery, in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2022; Weekend Special during the Cape Town Art Weekend at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town and FNB Art Joburg’s Opening Exhibition at SMAC Gallery in Johannesburg (2021); Matereality at Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town, South Africa; and Gather at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town, both in 2021; Dress Up, Speak Up: Regalia and Resistance at 21c Museum Hotels in Cincinnati, USA; and Radical Love at the Ford Foundation Gallery in New York City, USA; both in 2019. Paulsen was included in 2018’s After the Thrill is Gone: Fashion, Politics and Culture in Contemporary South African Art, a travelling exhibition starting at the Richmond Centre for Visual Arts at the Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, USA. In 2017, his work was shown as part of the All Things Being Equal exhibition at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) in Cape Town. In 2015, Paulsen’s work was included in Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design, curated by Amelie Klein and Okwui Enwezor, which travelled to the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany and to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

Paulsen’s work is included in several notable collections, including the Sovereign Art Foundation collection in Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK, Guernsey and South Africa and the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA)’s collection in Cape Town, South Africa.