Paul Rooney (born 1967 in Liverpool) is an English artist who works with music and words, primarily through installations and records.
He studied painting at Edinburgh College of Art, graduating with an MFA in 1991. In the late 1990s his art practice shifted from painting to music, initially with the band Rooney and their three experimental lo-fi punk pop albums about everyday life. His work later focussed on music within gallery installations, performances and video works.
His art works often explore the difficulties inherent in the representation of 'place'. The curator Claire Doherty wrote that: "Rooney asserts [the] occupation of place through real and fictional occurrences, acknowledging the overlooked and proposing the equal status of urban myth and lived experience."
Rooney was the winner of Art Prize North in 2003, the Northern Art Prize in 2008, and the Morton Award for Lens Based Work in 2012. His works have been purchased for the Arts Council Collection and through the Contemporary Art Society Acquisitions Scheme.