Mandy Payne is a multi award winning recent graduate from Nottingham University who currently lives and works in Sheffield.
REVIEW:
Guardian (May 2014)
Sheffield's Grade II*-listed Park Hill flats are in the process of being reassessed as a modernist treasure. Yet, as the concrete blocks await gentrification, there is the danger of their brutalist grandeur being aesthetically dissolved. The Sheffield-based artist Mandy Payne recognises this in Between Places And Spaces, a series of unforgiving paintings of the flats. Payne often paints directly with aerosols on to concrete. Her compositions - bold arrangements of blank-faced geometric walls, empty windows and deserted walkways - similarly pull no pictorial punches.
STATEMENT:
I am a Sheffield based painter and printmaker and am interested in marginal spaces, places that are often maligned and thought to be devoid of traditional aesthetic beauty. For past 4 years I have been exploring Park Hill here in Sheffield, the Grade II* listed council estate and one of Britain’s largest examples of Brutalist architecture. Park Hill has had a chequered social history and is currently undergoing regeneration. It feels very much at the moment, an in-between place, a liminal zone which makes it an interesting place to observe. Part of the estate has undergone transformation into shiny, luxury flats whilst half remains boarded up and derelict. A small remaining part is still inhabited - the residents remaining resolutely in situ until finally decanted.
Most of my work has focussed mainly on the un- refurbished parts of the development where the memories and layers of the past are almost tangible. My intentions were to create observational paintings that spoke of the displacement of the established communities and the temporality of urban landscape. I also wanted to draw attention to what I consider to be the hidden beauty of the estate, the geometry of the imposing architecture, the play of light and shadows on the walkways and the myriad of colours present in the spalled and tarnished concrete.
Spending time at Park Hill reinforced to me that concrete is the unifying link throughout the estate and could be regarded as a potential palimpsest. In the refurbished sites the concrete has been restored to exacting standards, in the old parts it is weathered and soiled which gives it a rawness and beauty of its own. With this in mind I have been working with materials that are integral to the estate itself, namely concrete (which I have mixed both into the paint and as a substrate) and aerosol spray paint (referencing the graffiti).
In April 2015 I also started a 2 year part time Fellowship to learn the printmaking technique of stone lithography at Leicester Print Workshop. I have been continuing to make work based on Park Hill and some of my lithographs made as part of this residency are also shown in this exhibition.
BIOGRAPHY:
Born 1964 - Pontypool.
Raised in Bradford
Based in Sheffield.
Education
2011 - 2013 BA (Hons) Fine Art (First Class), Nottingham University
2007 - 2010 HND Fine Art, Sheffield College
1992- 1995 MDentSci University of Leeds (Paediatric Dentistry)
1982 - 1986 BDS University of Manchester (Dentistry)
AWARDS
Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant, 2015
Arts Council Funding, 2015
2 Year Fellowship in Stone Lithography , Leicester Print Workshop
Valeria Sykes Award (Main Prize) New Light Arts Prize, 2015
Prize Winner John Moores Painting Prize, 2014
Runner Up John Ruskin Prize, 2014 (Painting acquired for Ruskin collection, Millennium
Gallery Sheffield)
Judges Prize, Harley Open Exhibition, (2013), Harley Gallery, Welbeck Estate, S80, 3LW
Emerging Artist Award, (2012), South Yorkshire Open, Cooper Gallery, Barnsley
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2014 - ‘Between Places and Spaces’ – Tarpey Gallery, Castle Donnington, *
2016 (Forthcoming – March) – ‘Betwixt and Between’, Cupola Gallery, Sheffield*
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2015 - New Light Arts Prize, Bowes Museum,Barnard Castle, Mercer Gallery, Harrogate and
Panter and Hall, London*
National Open Arts Exhibition, Royal College of Art, London
Royal Academy, Summer Exhibition, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London *
‘Overlooked’, Scottish Queen, Park Hill, Sheffield*
2014 - John Moores Painting Prize, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool *
John Ruskin Prize Exhibition, ‘Recording Britain Now’, Millennium Galleries,
Sheffield*
National Open Art Competition, Somerset House, London
Royal Academy, Summer Exhibition, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London*
‘Picturing Sheffield’, Millennium Gallery, Sheffield
2013 -Threadneedle Prize For Painting and Sculpture, Mall Galleries, London *
Degree Show, Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham
Harley Open Exhibition, Harley Gallery, Worksop*
2012 Derby City Open, Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby
South Yorkshire Open, Cooper Gallery, Barnsley
RESIDENCIES
July 2013- Poly- Technic Summer School – SOAR Works, Sheffield
2015-2017 – Fellow in Stone Lithography, Leicester Print Workshop
2015-2016 – Graduate Resident at Nottingham University, Department of Fine Art
WEBSITE:
www.mandypayneart.co.uk