About

Roshana Rubin Mayhew is a transdisciplinary artist. Over the last 20 years, Roshana’s work has investigated queer practices and methodologies. Queer in that they reach for mutability, nuance, and multiplicity; resisting fixity, linearity, and essentialisation in hope of more expansive senses of being and belonging. Whether through riffing and the immanent topological systems it proposes, sensorial knowledge and affective charge, breath and other fluid states, quantum thinking with its queerer temporalities and interconnectedness, collaboration including visiting the “inanimate”, portals and utopian worlding, this practice is often saturated in the colour blue: longing, possibility, fluctuating, pleasure.

Roshana is presently focused on wrestling-with a bodyweight of clay, practice-based research that is steeped in the poetics of the Blues – dissonance, rhythmic feel, and 12-bar topologies. Drawing from these as queer practices of resistance, this investigates the artistic capacity to hold the weighty – the adverse, oppressive, traumatic, or present shaped by the heavy repeating imprints of ongoing past – in a way that instils malleability and openness. With a focus on performance, this is investigated through the palpable charge of liveness and its ability to gather space that holds malleably, through resonance rather than representation. A resonance that begins to articulate the affective capacity of artwork – affective as both moving and remaking.

Roshana is currently a PhD researcher at the Royal College of Art, articulating an emergent queer methodology of leaning in, funded by London Arts & Humanities Partnership (2020-2026), lecturing at Istituto Europeo di Design Milan, and living in London.

Upcoming

2025
Whitechapel Gallery, London Open Live
Feeling the Blues

Movement I June 19th, 7pm

Movement II July 24th, 7pm

Movement III August 21st, 7pm

Exhibitions and Performances

2025 Score | RCA Research Biennale, Royal College of Art (Battersea), London
2024 The rub of the sweet spot | Performance, Queer Materialities Live!, Glasgow School of Art
2024 w tenderness | Chasma, Beaconsfield Gallery, London
2023 Blues suits | Queereal Secretions, Annex Gallery, Glasgow
2023 Pre- and Re- mains MAKE ME WET | Earthwise, Beaconsfield Gallery, London
2023 MAKE ME WET | Performance, Hopscotch Research Biennale, Copeland Gallery, London
2022 4’45”, hold | Performance & remains, Unruly Encounters, Southwark Park Galleries, London
2022 coma burrito | Performance, Weathering Entanglement Research Platform, Dungeness
2021 Just Dreaming, Entanglement Research Platform, Royal College of Art, London
2021 stigma root cap | Performance, Royal College of Art Research Platform, London
2021 Visiting | Research Biennale, Royal College of Art, London
2020 desire-gram | Grand Re Union issue: Rooted Hauntology co-curated by Ingrid Vranken & Marta Keil | Art Stations Foundation, Poznan & Counter Pulse, San Francisco
2020 Trio Talk Rhizome #2/1 with Eva Karczag and Mayfield Brooks, Trio Talk Rhizome #3/1 with Jennifer Monson and Mariana Renthel | Grand Re Union issue: Liquefaction curated by Peter Pleyer | Art Stations Foundation, Poznan & Counter Pulse, San Francisco
2020 Beyond Beyond with Queer Street Press | Paris Ass Book Fair , Palais The Tokyo, Paris (Covid cancelled)
2019 Portals (Beyond Beyond) | Stand by me, Pelagica, MiArt & Milano Art Week, Milan
2019 Beyond Beyond with Queer Street Press | Strange Perfume, South London Gallery
2019 Rationalising a stepping away from rationality, or Blue Amadou | We belong to a poetry club, Walk-in Studio, Milan
2018 Anomalies in the flux of normal things (Beyond Beyond) | Solo exhibition, Nowhere Gallery, Milan
2017 Notes for a new world order (Beyond Beyond) | Shape of things to come, Nowhere Gallery, Milan
2017 Notes for a new world order: Portal #1 (Beyond Beyond) | Solo exhibition, Artquest Lifeboat Residency, London
2016 Where space is granular, things are nowhere and time does not exist | Screensavers at Artquest Lifeboat Residency, London
2016 Underfoot is space | 26 Caledonian Road, Geddes Gallery, London
2015 Metacrush | The Present Hurts, London College of Communication, London
2014 What is Left? (with Ellie Harrison, The Grief Series) | Solo UK Touring exhibition in empty houses (b-side Multimedia Arts Festival Portland, Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts, Stockton Arc, Barnsley Civic)
2014 SAVANNAH (GJRL collective) | Solo exhibition, Art Licks Weekend, A_Space, London
2014 I’m (not) sorry (GJRL Collective) | Jonas Julekort 2014, Jonas Julekort, Copenhagen
2013 Film start time | Performing Paper, Paper Gallery, Manchester
2013 The Breath Collection | Vantage Art Prize 2013, Leeds
2012 The Sleep Collection | Solo exhibition, Islington Mill, Salford
2012 The Breath Collection | Salon Art Prize 2012, Matt Robert’s Art Gallery & Griffin Gallery, London
2012 The Breath Collection | World Event Young Artists 2012, Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham
2012 Film Start Time | The Manchester Contemporary, Represented by Paper Gallery, Manchester
2012 The Breath Collection | Culture Cloud, New Art Exchange, Nottingham
2012 Glimpse | Photography Open 2012 at Surface Gallery, Nottingham
2012 Photographic works | Paper, Paper Gallery, Manchester
2011 Film Start Time | Solo exhibition, Cornerhouse (now HOME), Manchester
2007 My Home a Social Space | Performance, My Flat, Manchester
2006 Microwaveable Moments | Performance, Method Lab Live Art Commission, greenroom, Manchester
2006 Melting Moment No. 1 | Performance, Live Art Cabaret at Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts
2005 ?erhaps | Performance for Emergency at greenroom, Manchester

Awards & Grants, Commissions & Residencies

2024-2026 London Arts & Humanities Partnership Award (Arts & Humanities Research Council)
2022 Royal College of Art Research Funding (movement research with Kathy Crick, Trinity Laban)
2017-2018 Contact & The Proud Trust Commission (Beyond Beyond)
2017 BJP Portrait of Britain (Beyond Beyond)
2016-2017 Artquest Lifeboat Studio Residency
2015-2016 Metro Imaging Mentorship Award
2016 Magnum Graduate Photographers Award (nominee)
2015 R&D Residency with City Arcadia, Artspace (Beyond Beyond)
2014 £70k+ Arts Council Grants for the arts with residencies across Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts, b-side Multimedia Arts Festival Portland, Stockton Arc, Barnsley Civic, supported by Arts Council England in collaboration with Ellie Harrison/The Grief Series
2012 R&D Arts Council England funding in collaboration with Ellie Harrison
2012 Residency at Islington Mill
2006 Method Lab Live Art Commission, greenroom and hoeb
2006 Nuffield Theatre Commission, Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts
2006 The Prince’s Trust funding for creative practitioner educational workshops

Research & Conferences

2024 Radical Matter Research proto-Centre with research lead Professor Johnny Golding
2024 Conference Stream Collaboration and Collectivising: Potentials and Intersections curated with Gentle Gestures | London Conference in Critical Thought, University of Greenwich, London
2023 Research Assistant Glasgow School of Art Research Platform, Lead Researcher Dr Nicky Coutts | Glasgow School of Art
2023 Presented Queer invention through the pleasurable flow of improvisation in conference stream Thinking-Feeling Desire in the Now: Post-Capitalist Desire and Practices of the Body, London Conference in Critical Thought | London Metropolitan University
2023 Conference Stream Gentle Gestures curated with Gentle Gestures, London Conference in Critical Thought | London Metropolitan University
2020-2023 Entanglement research group with research lead Professor Johnny Golding, Royal College of Art, London
2022 Research Assistant Representation of Women Artists in the UK During 2021, Lead Researcher Dr Charlotte Bonham-Carter | Freelands Foundation
2022 Presented HOLD! refold in conference stream Sticky Matters, London Conference in Critical Thought | Birkbeck College, University of London
2020 Research Group Diagram with research lead Dr Catherine Ferguson | Royal College of Art, London
2015 Conference Laughing My Art Off co-organised and chaired | London College of Communication, University of the Arts, London

Lecturing & Workshops

Since 2017 Lecturer, course designer and unit lead | Istituto Europeo di Design, Milan
2023-2024 Associate Lecturer | University of East London
2021-2023 Associate Lecturer | University of the Arts, London
2019 Possible Utopias Cross-course four-day workshop | Istituto Europeo di Design, Milan
2018 On Desiring & Unknowing Workshop | Islington Mill Art Academy Masters, Salford
2017 Workshop Leader | London College of Communication, University of the Arts, London
2012 Visiting Lecturer | Manchester Metropolitan University
2011 On documenting performance Workshop | 11-11-11, Manchester
2010 Mentor and Workshop Leader | Future Fires at Contact, Manchester
2010 Creative Practitioner | Centre for Urban Education, Greater Manchester secondary schools
2007 Artist Assistant | Creative Partnerships, Greater Manchester primary and secondary schools
2006 Creative Practitioner | Pupil Referral Units, Manchester

Publications

2024 Gentle Gestures: contexts, spaces and approaches beyond the academy. Issue edited for Makings Journal, co-editor with Anouk Hoogendoorn, Sophie Mak-Schram and Dr Paul Stewart (Gentle Gestures)
2023 Feeling the Blues in ‘Queereal Secretions: Artistic Research as Exquisite Practice’ eds Nicky Coutts & Henry Rogers | Glasgow: Article Press
2023 Entanglement Neckerchief-hanky in ‘Earthwise’ | London: Royal College of Art
2021 stigma root cap in ‘PROVA 6’ eds Chantal Faust & Nicky Coutts | London: Royal College of Art
2020 A next beyond (Queer is a portal) in ‘Modern Queer Poets’ | London: Pilot Press

Education

2020-2026 PhD Practice-based research funded by LAHP and supervised by Professor Johnny Golding and Dr Harold Offeh, School of Arts & Humanities, Royal College of Art, London
2015 MA Photography with Distinction, University of The Arts, London
2009 Graphic Design HND with Distinction, Manchester College
2005 Foundation Art & Design with Distinction, Manchester Metropolitan University
1998-2003 Classical music and Jazz, specialising in Clarinet and Piano, fully funded place, Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester

Collaborations

2022-2025 Gentle Gestures with Anouk Hoogendoorn, Sophie Mak-Schram and Dr Paul Alexander Stewart
2016-2020 Beyond Beyond with Giulia Astesani
2014-2016 GJRL collective with Giulia Astesani, Jessie McLaughlin and Lalu Delbracio
2012-2014 with Ellie Harrison on The Grief Series

Press

The Independent, BBC 4 Women’s Hour, BBC Manchester, BBC Sheffield, The Big Issue, 1000 Words (Beyond Beyond), Artquest, DIVA (Beyond Beyond), Girls Like Us – Family issue (GJRL), Buzzfeed (GJRL), Modus Operandi/T14 Contemporary (Beyond Beyond), Central Station, Walk-in Studio, Pample-Mousse (Beyond Beyond), The Old Girls Club (Beyond Beyond), L-Mag (GJRL), The Northern Echo, Lancaster Guardian, Dorset Echo, Art Daily, The Mancunion