Faculty

Born in 1971, Carol Golemboski's early interest in writing as a child lead her to earn her Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art, Rhetoric and Communications Studies at the University of Virginia.  She took a photography course as an elective in her sophomore year and was hooked.  She decided she liked this new form of expression and branched out taking painting, drawing, and printmaking courses.  Upon graduation, Carol was certain she wanted to be a visual artist and went on to earn a Master of Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1996 and a M.F.A. in Photography at Virginia Commonwealth University in 1999. Since then, she has received numerous research grants and fellowships from the American Photography Institute, Virginia Commission for the Arts, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Society for Photographic Education.

Professor Golemboski's work is influenced by writers she was exposed to over her lifetime (Shirley Jackson, Virginia Woolf, Oscar Wilde, Emily Dickinson, and Edgar Allan Poe among others). Also, Carol has been inspired by by the work of other visual artists such as Joseph Cornell, Olivia Parker, Joel-Peter Witkin and Ralph Eugene Meatyard.

Her solo exhibitions have included shows at the Houston Center for Photography, the Crealde School of Art in Winter Park (2002), FL, Southern Light Gallery in Amarillo, TX, and the Photography Gallery at Notre Dame University. She has participated in 38 exhibitions in two-person, three-person or group shows in the past ten years and has received multiple awards and publications.

Professor Golemboski is represented by Robert Klein Gallery, Boston, Sandy Calson Gallery, Denver, and Page Bonda Gallery, Richmond Virginia. She held the post of Assistant Professor and James B. Pendleton Fellow in the Cinema and Photography Department, Park School of Communications at Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY before coming to the Visual Arts program at the University of Colorado Denver.

Carol's work refers to the pseudo-science of "object reading" which is defined a psychic ability claimed by certain individuals to "divine" the history of items with which they come into close contact.  Her photos contain ordinary belongings such as doll houses or bird cages to symbolically charged items that suggest the human figure, such as dress forms, leg braces and wigs. Most of the items used in her photography came from antique shops, garage sales and flea markets. 

Carol began the series when she was at VCU in 1997.  At VCU, graduate photography students were housed in an old convent owned by the university.  "Everyone swore it was haunted," she remarked, "It wasn't a great environment for a darkroom – there was paint peeling and holes in the ceilings – but it provided a fantastic backdrop for my objects.  Truthfully, the place scared me, and I was interested in the psychology of that fear."

To view the complete portfolio, please pick up a copy of LensWork at most major book stores (such as Barnes & Noble or Borders) and some independent book stores starting July 8th.  It will also be available for purchase on-line at http://www.lenswork.com/.

LensWork published an extended CD version of her portfolio which includes an audio interview and commentary about her work.   The CD will be available for purchase through their web site only: http://www.lenswork.com/lwc.htm

Carol is Assitant Professor of Photography at the University of Colorado Denver.