Kimberley Manning's Art is part of the PLEAS. Project -Passionfruit Local Erotic Art Series - an initiative we have created to showcase the extraordinary array of sensual artists in Australia. Kim is the second artist to be showcased. Sculptor Greg Taylor was our first artist in the series, with his Passionfruit commissioned 'Cunt Soaps', available here.
KIMBERLEY MANNING
Kimberley Manning is a painter and illustrator currently based in Sydney, Australia.
Manning developed a keen interest in visual arts from a very young age growing up in rural NSW, sketching and painting on anything in sight. Completing her BVA and honours degree with first class results at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, 2013, Manning’s dissertation and studio works explored the tensions that surface when sexually explicit imagery is presented in an artistic space.
By referencing pornographic magazines, websites, personal memories and fantasies, Kimberley disaggregates and reinterprets sexually explicit themes in her practice, primarily using watercolour paint, acrylic paint, pastel and pencil to create a fusion of high and low art forms.
In her work, Kimberley often engages with the personal concern that contemporary culture is controlled and mediated by images, blurring the line between the real and the represented. She explores the idea that the hyperreal and oversaturated world of hardcore pornography makes it quite easy for viewers to disassociate with what they are watching, creating an unrealistic idea of what sex should be like.
In an attempt to combat this notion, Manning depicts semi abstracted tableaux that are rife with passion, intimacy and vulnerability, promoting a sense of seduction and encouraging our imagination to create the rest of the story.
Working with all colours and shapes, rarely depicting skin colour, and steering from solely heteronormative work, Kimberley has consistently worked with this theme for several years.
Kimberley is currently working as a full-time artist from her home studio in Sydney’s inner west. She has been involved in various solo and group exhibitions in Sydney and Melbourne and was recently selected by Jordan Watson to be a part of the Museum of Love at The Gallery in Los Angeles.
Another recent highlight was being personally contacted by Cooper Hefner to have her work featured in the relaunch of Playboy’s website.
Kimberley's prints are signed, limited editions (100).
