Mandy Smith
Mandy Smith - BA (Hons) Fine Art 2018 Graduate from Solent University, Southampton
Statement
Mandy Smith is a Southampton based artist, her work focusing largely on familial interactions, from the small every day, seemingly insignificant events that happen whilst bringing up children to the sometimes overwhelming feelings of loss – covering birth, illness and death.
​
After being given the all clear from a rare form of cancer - Synovial Sarcoma, followed a few years later by the death of her mother from breast cancer, prompted Mandy Smith to embark on a lifelong ambition to change her career from I.T. to contemporary art.
Her work emerges from moments and feelings of experiences with the maternal: examining details of the past between herself and her children and also the relationship with her mother. Combining elements of different memories, Smith distorts her past, making a patchwork to convey a feeling.
Mixing a desire to learn new processes, Smith mirrors the content of her work, repeating known processes whilst simultaneously introducing novel new approaches in order to enrich her practice. Materials and technical aspects of work by woman artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Annette Messager and Sarah Lucas have been an inspiration.
​
Smith’s choice of materials is modest, often using clothing and stuffed toys, sourced from the domestic setting, reworked by the artist to unsettling effect. Through intervention in scale or material quality, Smith navigates a space between bodily and monstrosity.
Education
2015 - 2018
First BA (Hons) Fine Art, Solent University
Awards
2022
Printmaking Prize for Northam Cubes, Southampton City Art Gallery Open 'What Does Culture Mean to You'
Exhibitions
Solo
2020
Fruiting, Site-specific window installation, Hidden Wardrobe, Aspace, Southampton
2019
Local artist, Make Your Mark, Solent Showcase Gallery, Southampton
2019
2018
Tanoptic, K6 Gallery, Southampton
Genes, The Art House Cafe, Southampton
​
Group
2023
Mood Exhibition, Ovada Gallery, Oxford
2023
St Barbes Open Exhibition, Lymington
2023
2022
2022
Common Thread Exhibition, Guildhall Square, Southampton
Cowprint 10 yr Foyer Exhibition, Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton
Lucky Dip Exhibition, God's House Tower, Southampton
2022
Southampton City Art Gallery Open 'What Does Culture Mean to You'
2022
2022
Dystopia Holdings Exhibition, Zest Arts Collective, Alfred Arms, Southampton
Cutting a Fine Line, Cowprint Artist Group, God's House Tower, Southampton
2021
Navigating a New World, Cowprint Artist Group, God's House Tower, Southampton
2021
2020
Signs of the Times, Zest Arts Collective, Old Northam Road, Southampton
Mango Chutney, Group Virtual Exhibition, Alfred Arcades, Southampton
2019
Banana Split, Graduate Group Exhibition, Alfred Arcades, Southampton
2019
Made in Southampton, Group Exhibition, ReSo, Southampton
2018
Banana Bread, Graduate Group Exhibition, Alfred Arcades, Southampton
2018
2018
Ripe Bananas 2, Graduate Group Exhibition, Alfred Arcades, Southampton
Emerging Artist Group Exhibition, Forest Arts Centre, New Milton, Hampshire
2018
26° Below Bar, Group Degree Show, Below Bar Studios, Southampton
2018
Look a Little Closer, Group Exhibition, Winchester Gallery, Park Avenue, Winchester
2018
Chaiya Art Awards, Group Exhibition, Oxo Gallery, South Bank, London
2017
Emerging Artist Group Exhibition, Forest Arts Centre, New Milton, Hampshire
2017
Group 2nd Year Degree Uncontained Exhibition, Guildhall Square, Southampton
2017
2016
City & Life, Group Fine Art Exhibition, Chongqing Restate College, China
Southampton Pride of Place Project, Southampton