Carole Robb

Carole Robb is a British artist and member of the National Academy of Design in New York City. She lives between New York City, Rome, Venice, and London.

Early life and education

Robb was born in Port Glasgow, Scotland in 1943 and studied painting at the Glasgow School of Art (1961–65). She has said that the “Glasgow School of Art shaped my studio discipline; no effort without error, but it was the harsh Scottish weather that shaped the internal life of my imagination.” Following this she went to New York City on a Fulbright artist fellowship from 1980 to 1981.

Art practice

Robb is a figurative painter, building on the hours of life drawing required at the Glasgow School of Art. Her work engages with mythology, which she first encountered in school, where she studied Greek and Latin.

Robb has exhibited with the Forum Gallery, New York (1982–1996); the Robert Steele Gallery, New York (2006–2008); the Denise Bibro Gallery, New York (2016–2018), and with Tibaldi Arte Contemporanea, Rome (2020). Recently (May 2025) Robb had a solo exhibition of works dealing with climate change in Venice, "Stato da Mar," with Tom Rowland Gallery at GPS London. And in June 2025 she showed related paintings and works on paper at the University Women's Club, London.

Her institutional exhibitions include Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, UK (1979); National Theatre Gallery London; and the South London Gallery (1983).

Robb was elected a member of the National Academy of Design, New York in 2010.

Awards and honors Robb received a British Arts Council award in painting (GLAA) in 1979 and a Fulbright Fellowship from the UK to the USA (1980–81). She was awarded numerous artist residencies in the US from 1980 to 1987, including at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire (1981).

Collections

Robb's paintings are included in a number of private and public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the National Academy Museum of Art, New York, NY; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the Imperial War Museum, London; and the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, London.

Teaching

Robb was visiting artist at various institutions and most recently at the New York Studio School from 1988 to 2004. She was Head of Atelier (Painting) there from 2005 to 2013.

Robb is currently (2022) the artistic director of the Rome Art Program in Italy, which she established in 2009.