Mandy Francis
JOIE DE VIVRE ... Moments in Time
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One of the things that Mandy is most fascinated with is the untainted quality of birds, animals and plants. Birds are entirely themselves with individual characters, and plants can pop up out of the ground with vibrant colours and patterns and lean in a way that says soo many things. Mandy sees it as pure magic, and wants to celebrate that feeling in her work. In a way, by trying to capture this, Mandy is making a statement about embracing yourself, and accepting your strangeness, trying your best to enjoy life and finding your Joie De Vivre.
Joie De Vivre..Moments in Time is an accumulation of the works inspired by recent travels which have then been translated and produced in Mandys studio on the Central Coast of NSW over the last year. Through trial and error, experimenting with paint, colour, exaggerating movement, oscillating between figurative, abstraction, fantasy and naive mark making, Mandy composes a work that captures the play of art making and moments in time. There is also a moment in each painting where Mandy gives way to her intentions and lets the paint, colour, texture, composition dictate the narrative. Sometimes a sheer gestural line can sum up the character of the bird or mountain. Or tapestry like patterns describe an ocean. Mandy isn’t concerned with creating a style or a scheme, for her it's about a conversation between the art process and the natural world.
Mandy Francis ( b 1975 , Ngunbay/Cairns QLD) lives and works on Darkinjung land/ Ettalong Beach NSW. Beyond her Fine Art degree (majoring in sculpture), from the National Art School, Sydney. Mandy has also undertaken research at the University of Newcastle, completing a Masters and a Doctor of Philosophy, where she specialised in public sculpture and installation art. Over 20 years, Mandy’s career as a painter sculptor and installation artist, has led her to art residencies in Japan and Australia, including remote communities in the central desert, NT, and Artspace, Sydney. Mandy has exhibited in major group exhibitions including The Dobell Drawing Prize, Blacktown Art Prize, Sculpture By The Sea, Underbelly Arts, Sydney Fringe Festival, Gosford Art Prize, The Harbour Sculpture Prize, Japan Australia Art Musings, The Art Of Sound, National Sound and Film Archive.
Mandys work is held in the collections of Janet Holmes à court AO, Anne Lewis AO, Sculpture by The Sea, and numerous private collections in Australia, US, Europe, NZ. Mandy is represented by Studio Gallery Group, Sydney and Melbourne.
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2023 Finalist Gosford Art Prize, Gosford Regional Gallery, Australia
2022 Solo Exhibition, Studio Gallery, Sydney
2021 Finalist, Gosford Art Prize, Gosford Regional Gallery, Australia
2021 Finalist Dobell Drawing Prize, National Art School, Australia
2020 Summer Show AK Bellinger Gallery, Inverall, NSW, Australia
2020 Finalist Harbour Sculpture Prize, Balmain Sydney, Australia
2019 Finalist Blacktown City Art Prize, Blacktown Arts Centre, Australia
2019 Spring Group Show, Studio Gallery Melbourne, Australia
2018 Group show with Claire Purser at Walcha Gallery of Art, Australia
2017 Presented and published a paper titled ‘The Social Artist’ Paris, France
2015 Material Poetry, Solo show, Watt Space Gallery, University House, Newcastle, Australia
2013, 2006, 2005, 2001 Sculpture by The Sea, Bondi, Australia
2013 Art of Sound, The National Film and Sound Archive in collaboration with Holmes a Court Gallery, Perth, Australia
2011 Underbelly Arts Project, The C-art, Mobile Graffiti Centre (a collaborative work with Milos and Momcilo Obradovic), Cockatoo Island, Sydney, Australia
2011 Outpost Art From the Streets, Cockatoo Island, Sydney, Australia
2010 JAAM project, Residency and Group exhibition at Australia House, Urada, Japan.
2010 Faces of Gosford, Gosford Regional Gallery, NSW Australia
2008 Solo Show at John Paynter Gallery at the Lock Up Cultural Centre Newcastle, Australia
2010 Three month residency at Artspace, Sydney, Australia
2001 Walcha Outdoor Gallery, Walcha Australia
2000 Solo Show Tin Sheds Gallery Sydney University, Australia
SELECTED AWARDS and GRANTS
2019 Awarded the Create NSW Grant, NAVA
2011 Won the Dr Roma Cummings University of Newcastle Creative Art Award
2006 Awarded the Clitheroe Foundation Mentorship Program Grant
2005 Won Australian Un-represented artist Sculpture By The Sea, Bondi, Sea Urchin
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COLLECTIONS
Mandy’s work is in the collections of Janet Holmes a Court, Ann Lewis AO, and numerous private collections in Australia, UK, US, NZD
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