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
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
SELECTED RESIDENCIES / AWARDS / COMMISSIONS
2026 The Arts Foundation Residency at Hawkwood, Cotswolds
2025 The Arts Foundation Future Awards Shortlisted: Visual Artist
DYCP Grant, Arts Council England
2024 Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Residency, Gateshead
2023 Gallery North, Micro Residency and Exhibition, Northumbria
2022 Somerset House: Gallery 31 Residency at Somerset House Studios, London
Sunderland University AA2A Residency - 2022-2023
A-N Artists' Bursary Award
2021 The Exchange Group residency with Newbridge Projects, Eastside Projects,CAMP, G39, Spike Island, Turf Projects
2020 The Elephants Trust, Animation production of Passage
DYCP: Arts Council England
198 Contemporary Arts & Learning, London: Womxn of colour art award, Shortlisted
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
Newcastle College, Fine Art Students year 1 + 2
Press/Publications