Mani Kambo is a multidisciplinary Artist, based in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Sacred symbols guide and connect us as humans with those who have been, are here, and will be. We expand and shrink back through cycles of birth, life, and death, tethered together as part of a larger cosmos. In my work, paths are cyclical in nature, symbolically connecting the human soul and its bond to the universe.
Black and white oscillate as opposing forces: good and evil, light and dark, creation and destruction, being and non-being. Rooted in a upbringing of superstition and protection, I explore origin myths and cosmological understanding. My use of embroidery and textile relates to the caste system in India, where generations of my family have been tailors, fabric printmakers, and dyers.
The rhythmic processes of knotting, tying, bending, and moving fabric in and out connect my artworks to meditative practices, a pathway toward transcendence through making. Through repetitive motion, the act of creating becomes a physical manifestation of how gesture and action hold power. This energy embeds itself within each artwork.
SOLO/DUO EXHIBITIONS:
2025 Between Passage and Place, All Over Each Otter, Otley
INTERLOCK, Concrete Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne
2022 ‘Lore’ part of GemArts Masala Festival, Gateshead Library
2018 RIFT, Vane Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Semblance, System Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne
2017 Janus at 36 Lime street, Supported using public funding by Arts Council England, Newcastle Upon Tyne
2016 The Moon and Six Pence, Graduate Artist in residence with Hope Stebbing, Tyneside Cinema Gallery, Newcastle- upon-Tyne
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS/ COMMISSIONS/ SCREENINGS :
2025 Conduit , Lumiere Light Festival, Crook Hall, Durham
Exeter Contemporary 2025 Open, Exeter
The Northern Festival of Illustration, Hartlepool
NAE OPEN 2025, New Art Exchange, Nottingham
2024 Spring Equinox Banner, Story of the Changing, York
Middlesbrough Art Week, with Hypha Collective
Harewood House Biennale, site specific commission, Leeds, June – October 2024
Portals, Gallagher and Turner, Newcastle Upon Tyne
COUNTERWEIGHT, Brass Tacks, Newcastle Arts Centre
2023 Faith Museum, Bishop Auckland, 2023 - 2026
Unknown Screens -Working Class Creatives Database x Hypha Studios, Film & video screening, London
Sudden Beams 2: Extraction at Mode Festival, Cockatoo Island, Sydney
Now Thats What I Call Art 2, Newcastle Contemporary Art, High Bridge Street
Sudden Beams 2: Extraction, Platform Asia, Various venues across the UK
2022 Hinterlands, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, 2022-2023
Swimmers Limb, Somerset House Gallery 31, London
Jubilee, Vane Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne
2021 Altitude, 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning, London
World So Obscured, The Great North Museum / Online, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
2019 Manner Of Flying, System Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Gathering intervention, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Sunderland Shorts Film Festival, Sunderland
2018 Middlesbrough Art weekender with GOLDTAPPED, October
Feeling Yr Thoughts, Northern Charter, Newcastle Upon Tyne
2017 Experimental Film Festival, Middlesbrough RAOB Club (The Buffs)
Something Good, Norwhich Outpost Offsite
The Moon and Sixpence, Revisited, 2017 Screening part of Hope Stebbing Doremiresidency
Playback Touring Exhibition in association with Random Acts, numerous venues across UK: Peckham Platform, Phoenix, Tyneside Cinema, The Hive, The Tetley, De La Warr Pavillon, Create Studios, March 2017- February 2018
Exposing Form, Part of International Womens day Vane, Commercial Union house, Newcastle Upon Tyne
RESIDENCIES / AWARDS / COMMISSIONS
2026 Hawkwood x The Arts Foundation Residency
Dead Dog Gallery x Durham Sixth Form centre
2025 DYCP Grant, Arts council England
The Arts Foundation Future Awards Shortlisted Visual Artist
2024 In Residence at Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art
2023 Polarity, Micro residency and exhibition, Gallery North
Brass Tacks, Artist development bursary and mentoring, Newcastle Arts Centre, North of the Tyne combined authority & Newcastle City Council
North East Artist Fund
Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, Associate Membership
Priestman Gallery 1 week Residency at Sunderland University
2022 AA2A - Sunderland University, 2022-2023
A-N Artists Bursary, 2022-2023
The Telling Place with The Space to Come, Durham University
Gallery 31 Residency at Somerset House Studios, London, 2022
2021 The Exchange with Newbridge Projects, Eastside Projects,CAMP, G39, Spike Island, Turf Projects
2020 The Elephants Trust, December
DYCP: Arts Council England and National Lottery Funding
Womxn of colour art award, Shortlisted Awardee by 198 Contemporary Arts & Learning, London
Bursary from Eclipse through the Slate Play Pot 2019-2020
Zabludowicz Collection: 2020 Masterclass
2019 Shortlisted for Dover Art Prize Fund
2018 Associate Membership at Newbridge
A-N Mentoring Programme
RIFT and Semblance, Supported using public funding by Arts Council England
Beyond Open door residency, Allenheads Contemporary Arts
2017 Janus at 36 Lime street, Supported using public funding by Arts Council England
Praxis Gallery resident for August
Towards a summoning, commissioned by Tyneside Cinema, True North, HOME. Funded by Arts Council England
2016 Tyneside Cinema Graduate Artist in Residence with Hope Stebbing, in partnership with Northumbria University
ARTIST TALKS/VISITS
2025 Have Some Imagination: Towards a Manifesto for Arts Education, Baltic, Artist talk Chaired by Donna Chambers
Bartlett Crit, Fine Art students, Newcastle university
2024 Counterweight Artist Q&A, Newcastle Arts Centre
Breakout, Create/Disrupt, Newbridge Project
2023 Visiting Speaker, Newcastle University - Collaborative textile dreamscapes, workshops with Fine Art students at Newcastle University
Creative practices', Sunderland University
2021 Castlefield Gallery, Artist talks programme focuses on communicating across boundaries
Newcastle College, Fine Art Students year 1 + 2
Press/Publications