About Gina…

Originally from South London, Crowley has lived in Gateshead for a very long time. Her daughters may be Geordies, but she still feels like a Londoner, if one no longer in exile. She attended life classes at Goldsmiths and later studied art at Newcastle Polytechnic where she was castigated for painting her final series in monochrome and told she would not pass. She did. These days, however, the artist revels in colour.

Her work is mostly figurative , focusing on family and relationships. The paintings tell stories with subtle humour. Many have been inspired by other artists’ work or mythology (both classical and christian), an early degree in English & Theology possibly contributing to this. This present body of work owes its inception to a Lubaina Himid exhibition at the Tate.

Whilst working as a teacher, Crowley has ran life classes in Newcastle and Gateshead for many years and held residencies at St Edmunds Church promoting art in the community. She has had solo exhibitions at Stanley Leisure Centre and The Sanctuary Art Space and curated group exhibitions in a number of community centres . At Commercial Union House (sadly gone) she produced short plays that examined the artists’ gaze upon the life model within an exhibition of life studies during the May Lates’ celebrations. In these Life Class plays the audiences were made participants in the dramas by the offer of pencils and paper. It was an interesting experiment in the fusing of both art and words and audience and art. Interactive art is something that Crowley is developing.

Other short plays, including ‘The Scrabble Game’ have been written, produced and directed by the artist in Newcastle. A brief foray into stand up led Crowley to the (somewhat obvious) conclusions that the world of stand up was both sexist and ageist, so despite getting huge kicks from making people laugh she gave it up to concentrate on visual art and poetry.