NEIL MANNING

Neil has worked both as a practising artist and educator since graduating in 1987 from Edinburgh College of Art with a BA (Hons) in Sculpture. He currently Lectures Fine Art at Edinburgh’s Telford College, having previously specialised as an arts educator working with adults with complex needs and challenging behaviour within Gogaburn and The Royal Edinburgh Hospitals.

The link between the involvement, need and desire to make visual art and an individuals perception, understanding and relationship to their own particular environment, experience or culture has been an intrinsic element informing in Neil'spractice. He continues to use a wide variety of mediums, and has consistently been drawn back to the figure as a basis for producing visual imagery to convey and express complex concepts and ideas. Although 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. Neil's work has been drawn directly from personal perceptions and his own cultural background and as a result his work is more often presented in less formal arenas such as clubs and greenrooms.

Since graduating he hasexhibited work in gallery based shows including the RSA, SSA, Richard Demarco Gallery, 369 Gallery and Tron Theatre. He was short listed for the McGrigor Donald Sculpture prize in 1990 exhibiting in the Kelvingrove Museum and Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh and London.