Nina Mankin studied at Chelsea College of Art and at Hereford College of Art attaining a first class degree in 2002. She has exhibited at the Kilvert Gallery Hay-On-Wye, The Kemble Gallery Hereford, Hitchcocks Gallery Bath and at the City Art Gallery Leeds, as well as a solo exhibition at the Winds of Change Art Gallery Cheltenham. She has won the H P Bulmer Award and the Brian Hatton Award.
Nina Mankin's narrative sculptures explore a secret and nostalgic inner world, its dreams, memories and stories. Contrary to the fast pace of life in London, Nina creates intimate settings which encourage the viewer to reflect upon a search for beauty and a deeper meaning amidst an essentially chaotic world. The ultimate feeling in her work is one of hope and faith, which is intended to encourage the viewer to remember their own dreams and secret longings.
Her choice of largely found and discarded materials are a response to modern day throwaway society, an attempt to salvage what has been abandoned and labelled useless. They contribute to the characteristically worked and distressed texture of the pieces and the sense that idealistic dreams of love and happiness remain and are somehow equally compelling within a flawed and damaged exterior world. Much of her work deals with the boundaries between a childlike innocence and playfulness and the struggle to make sense of an adult world with all its fears, loss, uncertainty and constraint.
Through the appealing and enigmatic gaze of innocent, eccentric and often fragile doll-like figures, universal themes such as happiness and sorrow, love and desire, confusion and paranoia are explored.