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Robyn Olive Carey

@robynolivecarey

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Irish Artist based in London
@rca_painting 2026
Winsor & Newton studio award 2026

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My final painting completed over the summer at @rca_painting

Irregular Programming
2026
Acrylic oil and coloured pencil on canvas
150 x 200 cm by @robynolivecarey

I’ve had the word Plasmatic stuck in my head for the last few weeks since reading @thewhitepube 's recent essay 'Cartoon Logic'.

Plasmatic describes a state of fluid potential where form refuses to stay fixed, constantly morphing. I've realised that I want to move away having a formula for layering processes and mediums in my work. It feels much more fitting to my practice to work entropically, painting through each medium and accumulating the information on the surface layer by layer, in no particular order.

I’m interested in how this plasmatic logic translates to a 2D plane. With a practice ruled by physicality and movement, I think there's something quite exciting about the act of capturing shape shifting energy, and giving a temporary order to it. By trapping it still on the canvas, it feels like I'm allowing it to be examined and considered.

Former
2026
35 x 40 cm
Acrylic, oil pastel and coloured pencil on canvas by @robynolivecarey

I can't quite believe I'm saying this, but today is the last day I'll be painting in the Royal College Of Art. Being here for a full year was a fully transformative experience for me and for my work. I'm so eternally greatful to have been able to do myself and my practice justice by undertaking an MA in painting here.

I'm a proud recipient of the Windsor and Newton studio award 2026, for my MA work, awarded to me by the head of painting Kamini Vellodi after our degree show. It feels like such an honour.

It feels a little tender to be closing this chapter right now and saying goodbye to everyone. But Later this week I am moving to new studio building in central London with a few pals, a dream scenario and setting and for our next chapter. Thanks to @florencetrust

If you would like to receive news from my new chapter, you can join my mailing list at the link in my bio.

@rca_painting by @robynolivecarey

For no particular reason, I never posted this painting to my grid before. This work, entitled 'a field that wouldn't quiet' marked a significant step forward in my practice to me. When painted in early 2026, at the time I was experimenting frenetically, pushing the boundary of the surfaces and effects I could produce with paint and coloured pencil on canvas. This work was extracted from that wave of experimentation.

I'm really pleased to be working on a private commission following on from this work, and I plan to continue building works in this group, with this particular treatment and application of materials.

Slide two : it was exhibited last April at a wonderfully strong mixed media show at @the_koppel_project entitled 'Entanglement' which was curated by @fernando.space @inter__sections

It's pictured on the 2nd slide next to a 3D work with running water from @anais.ost a particularly enjoyed this pairing as you could hear the running water while viewing my painting, and ideas of currents and cyclical movement were in my mind when working on it. by @robynolivecarey

An indexical mark is a physical trace directly caused by a real-world action, like a footprint in the sand, or the hand shaped prints on the Caves in Lascaux. Rather than illustrating an idea, it serves as literal, physical evidence that a specific body, or force was present and made contact at that exact moment.

In my practice, I'm aware that my physical presence has been shaped by my experiences of the screen-mediated age. From early TV to social media, the traces of myself that are transferred into material point to a body that's absorbing noise and saturation with speed. Each indexical mark I make is a recording of a body moving within these particular conditions.

Aura
2026
Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas
60 x 70 cm

From my MA body of work entitled Irregular Programming @rca_painting by @robynolivecarey

An indexical mark is a physical trace directly caused by a real-world action, like a footprint in the sand, or the hand shaped prints on the Caves in Lascaux. Rather than illustrating an idea, it serves as literal, physical evidence that a specific body, or force was present and made contact at that exact moment.

In my practice, I'm aware that my physical presence has been shaped by my experiences of the screen-mediated age. From early TV to social media, the traces of myself that are transferred into material point to a body that's absorbing noise and saturation with speed. Each indexical mark I make is a recording of a body moving within these particular conditions.

Reverb
2026
Acrylic on canvas
30 x 40 cm

#royalcollegeofart #mapainting #rcapainting by @robynolivecarey

For those that would like to see my MA body of work titled 'Irregular Programming' in person, I am currently scheduling some summer studio visits.

If you're interested in a studio visit, please get in touch with me via the contact form in my bio.

#rcapainting #royalcollegeofart by @robynolivecarey

Thank you so much to everyone that stopped by and shared some kind words or connected with me, the last week was a whirlwind 🌀
I'm so greatful to have exhibited at the RCA with such a strong cohort.

I got such a positive reaction to my @rca_painting degree show painting titled 'Through fever and flesh'

Buzzing to get back in the studio and keep working 💥

Through fever and flesh
2026
Acrylic, oil and coloured pencil on canvas
150 x 200 cm

#rcapainting #royalcollegeofart by @robynolivecarey

Introducing Robyn Olive Carey b.1992 an Irish artist from Dublin. @robynolivecarey

Her practice is driven by hyperactivity and the energetic transmission of noise and vibration into material. Her works exist not as images but as sensory recordings: residual reverberations of the overstimulating experience of the screen-mediated age. From this reality, sensation through the screen has emerged as a structural framework for her practice, a self-imposed cybernetic system within which she operates as an artist. However deviation from this system is integral to production, with impulse, risk, and imperfection often guiding her process and decision-making.

Through physical exertion, she channels sensory stimuli into material form through choreographed repetition, rhythm, and speed. Her dialogic methodology means each layer is negotiated with the previous at the moment of its inception. In her work, the canvas becomes a site of transmission. Its warp and and weft register each pixel of static generated by her compulsive mark-making, a somatic consequence of the screen-saturated condition.

She writes: “In my language of physical action and release, I scream into the paint. In its language of slippages and liquid glitches, it shouts back.”

Artwork list:

Slide 2: Over Heard, 2026. Acrylic, coloured pencil and oil on sliced canvas, wooden frame. No fixed dimensions

Slide 4-5: A Field That Would Not Quiet, 2026. Acrylic, coloured pencil and oil on canvas, 150 x 200 cm by @robynolivecarey