Above: Leonardo Da Vinci, by Carole Romana, 2005
Carole Romaya
We first became aware of Carole Romaya’s work when she submitted works for inclusion in the NW Open Prize at Art Gene in 2005. Carole and Rushton and Tyman were shortlisted for the prize awarded to Ben Cove.
We wanted to work further with Carole and were pleased to be able to offer her a Research Residency in 2006 where she made several interesting pieces some of which were exhibited in the When We Were Here exhibition later that year. When We Were Here also featured works by other recent (inter)national artists in residence including Paul Moss (UK), who we commissioned to curate the show, John Dummett (UK), Alison Unsworth (UK), Milena Bonilla (Colombia) and Minna Kantonen (Finland).
Several of her Views of the Moon series, created by exposing the inner surface of envelopes to the bleaching effect of sunlight under a painted ‘mask’ on acetate were made at Art Gene.
Carole Romaya studied BA Sculpture at Newcastle University and completed her MA at the Chelsea School of Art. In 2008 she featured in the publication Wrongteous, edited by Leo Fitzmaurice & Paul Rooney. In 2007 she was long-listed for The Northern Art Prize, along with Art Gene’s Artist/Founders Stuart Bastik and Maddi Nicholson, and several other artists who have recently exhibited at Art Gene: Matthew Houlding, Eric Bainbridge, Rushton and Tyman, Wolfgang Weileder and Leo Fitzmaurice who was shortlisted in 2011.