Artist statement
Mani Kambo is a multidisciplinary Artist, based in Newcastle upon Tyne. She explores the inner spirit by drawing on her own personal totemic symbols. Influenced by her upbringing in a household filled with superstition, prayer and religious ceremony. Textile, fabric dying and printmaking is rooted in Kambos family history within the caste system. She focuses on objects, routines and rituals distilled both from the everyday and mythology.
Her work records movement and documents performative actions – the hand that creates the action, fire that reveals, water which is the purifier and eyes that perceive: through the exploration of totemic objects and symbols. Through layering and editing images together she collages narratives and weaves dreamscapes. These visuals are repeated throughout her work like markers linking to notions of spirituality and belief in reincarnation.
SOLO/DUO EXHIBITIONS:
2024 Baltic Centre For Contemporary Art, Solo exhibition, December 2024 (Upcoming)
2022 ‘Lore’ part of GemArts Masala Festival, Gateshead Library
2018 RIFT, Vane Gallery
Semblance, System Gallery
2017 Janus at 36 Lime street, Supported using public funding by Arts Council England
2016 The Moon and Six Pence, Graduate Artist in residence with Hope Stebbing, Tyneside Cinema Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS/ SCREENINGS :
2024 Harewood House Biennale, site specific commission, Leeds, June – October 2024
Portals, Gallagher and Turner
COUNTERWEIGHT, Brass Tacks, Newcastle Arts Centre
2023 Faith Museum, Bishop Auckland, 2023 - 2025
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
2021 Altitude, 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning
2019 Manner Of Flying, System Gallery
Gathering intervention, Hatton Gallery
Sunderland Shorts Film Festival
2018 Middlesbrough Art weekender with GOLDTAPPED, October
Feeling Yr Thoughts, Northern Charter
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
2016 Video Social Club, Post Everything, part of Sea Change and The Plymouth Art Weekender
Thia/ Perpetual, Commercial Union house 4th Floor, part of The Late shows
Laing Artists take over, Laing Art Gallery, 30th April 2016
2015 Praxis Emerging Artists, Praxis Gallery, Commercial Union House, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Re[Fit], Collaborative book, cassette & film with Lauren Vevers,Newbridge books,Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Film screening, Kino Moviemento Berlin, Kreuzberg
IckleFilm Festival, Short film festival, Dundee
Free Range Group Exhibition at Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London
RESIDENCIES / AWARDS / COMMISSIONS
2024 In Residence at Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, January - May
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 2023 - 2024 for 1 year
Priestman Gallery 1 week Residency at Sunderland University, March
2022 AA2A - Sunderland University, 2022-2023
A-N Artists Bursary, 2022-2023
The Telling Place with The Space to Come, Durham University, 2022-2023
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 2018-2020
A-N Mentoring Programme, 2018 - 2019
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
i o u a e online residency
Praxis Gallery resident for August
Lady Betty Martin Fund
Towards a summoning, commissioned by Tyneside Cinema, True North, HOME. Funded by Arts Council England, 2017
2016 In Cahoots Residency, Hoults Yard
Tyneside Cinema Graduate Artist in Residence with Hope Stebbing, in partnership with Northumbria University. October 2015 - January 2016
2015 [Re]Fit, funding awarded by The writing squad
Best First Filmpoem and Audience Pick for Read Our Lips:Filmpoem Competition, Apples and Snakes, Middlesborough
Graduate Studio Northumbria member, September 2014-2015
ARTIST TALKS/ WORKSHOPS
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 June
Newcastle College, Fine Art Students year 1 + 2