Neil Manning:
Since graduating in 1987 from Edinburgh College of Art with a BA(Hons) in Sculpture I have worked both as a practicing artist and arts educator.
I completed an Art + Design Foundation Diploma in 1984 in Stafford before heading north to Edinburgh, since then I have worked with a wide variety of organisations, groups and individuals within the creative and visual arts across Scotland and the U.K.
I have been lecturing at Edinburgh’s Telford College since 1998 on courses across the Fine Art curriculum and gaining a PGCert Teaching Qualification in Further Education from the University of Dundee. During this time I have been acting Curriculum Manager Fine Art, Course team Leader of HND Public Art and am currently the Course Team Leader of the Btec First Diploma in Art + Design. Previously as an arts educator I specialised in working with adults with complex needs and challenging behaviour, working within the art therapy department in Gogarburn and Royal Edinburgh Hospitals.
The link between the involvement, need and desire to make visual art and an individual’s perception, understanding and relationship to their own particular environment, experience or culture has been an intrinsic element informing my own art practice. I have used a wide variety of mediums but have consistently been drawn back to the figure as a basis for producing imagery since studying at E.C.A. Although I heavily engage in aesthetic, tradition and allegory, the works are not purely studies, but figurative symbols, executed as non linear narrative markers or prompts to more subtle, hidden or layered philosophical meaning or human experience. My work has been drawn directly from my own personal perceptions and cultural background and as a result I have more often presented work in less formal arenas such as clubs and venues in the U.K and Holland as well as greenrooms and dressing rooms including Bjork, R.E.M and T in The Park.
Since graduating I have exhibited work in gallery based shows including the R.S.A, S.S.A, Richard Demarco Gallery, 369 Gallery and Tron Theatre. I was short listed for the McGrigor Donald Sculpture prize in 1990 exhibiting in the kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh and London. I am currently exploring and developing a series of figurative derived works to be cast in bronze integrating sampled and original texts, focussing on human coping mechanisms and strategies for personal survival and renewal.
