Romany EVELEIGH’s (1934–2020) work stands out for its uncompromising sign-based vocabulary rooted in a minimalist aesthetic. Her paintings, drawings and collages explore the human path to understanding, placing painting in a philosophical dimension. Eveleigh’s inclusion in the 2024 Venice Biennale heralds her most significant achievement to date. Working in relative solitude, Eveleigh approached art as a form of contemplative mark-making, borrowing techniques, and materials from the world of writing and printing.

Born in London in 1934, Eveleigh spent most of her life in Rome, although she shared a studio in New York with reclusive artist James Bishop for many years. In 1963, Eveleigh was in Ibiza performing a ‘happening’ with Salvador Dali when she met the photojournalist Anna Baldazzi, who was to become her long-life partner and wife. It was Baldazzi who introduced Eveleigh to the radical feminist movement led by the lesbian activist Michèle Causse, one of the artist’s most prominent supporters. The famed art historian Barbara Rose described Eveleigh’s paintings as ‘spiritual retreats that calm and center the mind’, and likened them as aids to contemplation in the same manner as Rothko, Newman, and Motherwell.

Her current solo exhibition 'Contested Surfaces' is on view at Richard Saltoun Gallery, New York. In 2024, Eveleigh was featured in the 60th Venice Biennale, 'Foreigners Everywhere'. This renewed international attention is mirrored by major recent institutional milestones, including the acquisition of her work by the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work is additionally included in the collections of the Tate, UK; the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada; the Museum of Recent Art (MARE), Romania; TIA Collection, USA; and the Roberts Institute of Art, UK.