Trained at the École Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris, Natacha Mankowski (Paris, FR, 1986) worked as an architect alongside Jean Nouvel and Vito Acconci before turning to painting. Her architectural background still resonates strongly in her paintings. Defying the boundaries between different artistic disciplines, Mankowski’s work is characterized by an exuberant use of the impasto technique. The way she employs this technique allows her to create textural and spatial structures in her paintings that moves them into the realm of sculpture. In her new work Natacha Mankowski has intensified this spatial and sculptural effect by working with larger formats. With many of these new paintings weighing 15 to 20 kilograms and more, they acquire a singular sense of gravity and presence; indeed, these paintings are objects that themselves inhabit a space alongside the viewers.
To address the question of how humans inhabit space at the intersection of nature and culture, Natacha Mankowski has developed her own visual and compositional language. While her compositions may seem abstract to the casual viewer, they are somewhat reminiscent of blueprints and ground maps widely used in architectural design and urban planning. This is no coincidence: many of her paintings are loosely inspired by the ground maps of the quarries she visited during her years as an architect.
Mankowski takes a keen interest in sites such as stone quarries, from which architects and builders collect their raw materials. Midway between nature and the built environment, quarries are transitional sites in which natural resources are excavated and turned into raw commodities to be used in buildings, but also cell phones, computers, and other modern technologies. So as much as we would like to believe we are far removed from nature, through these rough materials we are intrinsically connected to it. And as such, the mines and quarries where these materials are found also raise difficult questions about how humans have turned nature into a site for commodification, a process that has brought us high-tech and the urban environment but has also triggered ecological ruin and collapse.
Inspired by these issues, Mankowski has explored and visited many of these quarries, paying close attention to their geographical lay-out and the specific selection of raw materials on site. She then uses samples of these raw materials to create the thick impasto paint that texture her painterly work. (Words by Bram Ieven)
Natacha Mankowski has exhibited in numerous international exhibitions, such as: Zentrum fur Kunst ind Urbanistik (Berlin, GE) 2014 ; the Watermill Center (NY, USA) 2015, Pole muséal de Lisieux – Ateliers Intermédiaires (Lisieux, FR) 2015, Ceci Foundation (Berlin, GE) 2016, New Day Gallery (Berlin, GE) 2016, Souvenirs (Berlin, GE) 2016, the Epigraphic Museum (Athens, GR) 2018, Deschool and ISO (Amsterdam, NL), 2019, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Grenoble. She had several gallery shows with Everyday Gallery (2019 - 2022), Antwerp, Valerius Gallery (2022), Luxembourg City and Galeria Alegria (2023), Barcelona. She did a number of recidencies around the world and has been invited to teach at prestigious art schools like Sandberg Insitituut, Amsterdam. Mankowski is part of the Taylor Foundation in Paris and was the recipient of the Tony Garnier Prize, for Architecture and Urbanism awarded by the Académie Française d’Architecture in Paris.
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CV | Natacha Mankowski
Paris, France, 1986
Education
2012 Habilitation à Maîtrise d’Oeuvre NP, École Spéciale d’Architecture, Paris, France
2011 MA in Architecture, École Spéciale d’Architecture, Paris, France
2009 University of Cincinnati - DAAP, Cincinnati, USA
2004 University Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris - La Sorbonne, Paris, France
Awards
2014 Fondation Taylor, Paris, France
2012 Tony Garnier Prize for Urbanism at the French Architectural Academy, Paris, France
Exhibitions
2024
Les Costières de l'Art, Domaine de Poulvarel, Nîmes FR
Galerie Fleur & Wouter, Art Rotterdam, group presentation with Erik Mattijssen, Mirjam Vreeswijk & Saar Scheerlings NL
2023
Galerie Fleur & Wouter, Milos, Amsterdam Art Week NL
Galeria Alegria, Another Sun, Barcelona ES
2022
Galerie Fleur & Wouter, Painter’s Painters, group exhibition with Isa van Lier & Mirjam Vreeswijk NL
Valerius Gallery, Luxembourg, duo exhibition with Henry Chapman, ‘Both Skies Open to Thunder’ LUX
Centre d’Art Contemporain, Grenoble, group exhibition, rehabilitation of LE MAGASIN FR
Everyday Gallery, Antwerp, group exhibition, ‘Gado Gado’ BE
Bad Bordeaux, Valerius Gallery, Bordeaux FR
Art Rotterdam, Everyday Gallery, Rotterdam NL
Le lac, Brussels, group exhibition, ‘Matière Primaire’ BE
Dead Darlings, Berlin, auction, ‘From Stage-fright to Limelight’ DE
2021
Everyday Gallery, Antwerp, ‘Soil is concrete’ BE
Everyday Gallery, Antwerp, group exhibition, ‘The Sun also rises’ BE
Everyday Gallery, Antwerp, group exhibition, ‘Pot Luck’ BE
2020
Everyday Gallery, Antwerp, group exhibition, ‘Limbo II’ BE
De school, Amsterdam, group exhibition, ‘De Tour’ NL
Online show, curated by Kaspar De Jong, ‘Stay at home’
HVW8 Gallery, Berlin, group exhibition,’ Pause in your flight’ DE
Art Rotterdam, Everyday Gallery, Rotterdam NL
Collectible Fair, Everyday Gallery, Brussels BE
2019
Everyday Gallery, Antwerp, group exhibition, ‘Nude’ BE
De School, Amsterdam, duo exhibition with M. Van Olst, ‘Dune’ NL
Playstation Sloterdijk, Amsterdam, Art Route, ‘Get Lost’ NL
2018
Epigraphic Museum of Athens, Athens, ‘Monument’ GR
Le Consulat de la Gaité, Paris, duo exhibition with Laure Jaffuel, ‘Support-Surface’ FR
Bubenberg, Paris, group exhibition, ‘Morceaux Choisis II’ FR
Villa Noailles, Hyères, group exhibtion, ‘Design Parade III’ FR
New Day Galerie, Berlin, group exhibition DE
2017
Corbusierhaus, Ceci Fondation, Berlin, ‘Space is non static’ DE
Bubenberg, Paris, group exhibition, ‘Morceaux Choisis I’ FR
GlogauAir, Berlin, group exhibition, ‘The Voice of Doxa’ DE
Fernseheturm, Berlin, Festival of lights DE
Novado Gallery, New Jersey, group exhibition, ‘B&W’ USA
Berghain, Berlin, group exhibition, ‘Suno 2’ DE
Biennale, St Etienne, ‘Working Promesse’ FR
2016
New Day Gallery, Berlin, ‘In the zone’ DE
Ceci Foundation, Berlin, group exhibition, ‘The Waves’ DE
The Hospital Gallery, Berlin, ‘Suno’ DE
Le coeur, Paris, group exhibition, ‘Only Lovers’ FR
Sara Nightingale Gallery, Watermill, New York, ‘Team Spirit’ USA
Pôle muséal, Lisieux, ‘Trait’ FR
2015
Watermill Center, New York, ‘The Island’ USA
Konzulát, Berlin, ‘Zoo experiment’ DE
Dublin, ‘Memory and Places, Describing Architecture’ IR
Berghain, Berlin, ‘Turn around bright eyes’ DE
2014
Ains Ah, Berlin, ‘Animal Space’ DE
Das Gift, Berlin, ‘Space Oddity’ DE
ZKU, Zentrum fur Kunst und Urbanistiks, Berlin, ‘White Hole’ DE
Konzulát, Berlin Art Week, Berlin DE
Kreuzberg Pavillion, Berlin, Same Standing - 166 DE
ZKU Berlin, installation, Stadtumbau, ‘Flat Spaces’ DE
MoP, Berlin, ‘I am an Oasis’ DE
2013
Gallery MC, New York, East River USA
Architecture
2013 Dominique Perrault Architecture, Paris, France
2012 AAD, Architecture Anne Démians, Paris, France
2011 Department of Parks and Recreation, New York, USA
2010 Ateliers Jean Nouvel, Paris, France
2010 Vito Acconci Studio, New York, USA
Residencies
2022 CNAC, Le Magasin, Grenoble, France (1 month)
2022 Sterna, Nisyros, Greece (1 month)
2020 De school, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2 months)
2020 WOW, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2 years)
2019 Palazzo Monti, Brescia, Italie (1 month)
2018 Le Consulat de la Gaité, Paris, France (2 months)
2018 Epigraphic Museum of Athens, Greece (1 month)
2017 Bundanon Trust, Sydney, Australia (2 weeks)
2016 ESKFF, Mana Contemporary, New Jersey, USA (3 months)
2015 Villa Lena, Tuscany, Italy (2 months)
2015 Watermill Center, New York, USA (1 month)
2015 Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York, USA (1 year)
2014 ZKU, Zentrum fur Kunst und Urbanistiks, Berlin, Germany (4 months)
2014 GlogauAir, Berlin, Germany (1 month)
Publications and articles
2023 Beeldhouwen met verf, Residence Magazine, Ellen Leijser, Nederland
2022 Eye-catching exhibition puts nature in the limelight, Gabriel Antar, Luxembourg Times https://www.luxtimes.lu/en/culture/eye-catching-exhibition-puts-nature-in-the-limelight-61f2b767de135b923679f5f6
2021 Soil is concrete, Publication in collaboration with Everyday Gallery, Design and Concept Frédérique Gagnon and Virginie Gauthier.
2021 https://artviewer.org/natacha-mankowski-at-everyday-gallery/
2021 https://www.emergentmag.com/exhibitions/natacha-mankowski-at-everyday-gallery
2020 Duologue with Natacha Mankowski https://www.wow amsterdam.nl/2020/12/natachamankowksi/
Galerie Fleur & Wouter
The aim of Galerie Fleur & Wouter is to bring young people into contact with art, to make them feel at home in the gallery and to motivate them to start collecting. This philosophy of an accessible and inclusive gallery is reflected in all our activities. We try to communicate in an accessible way and tell clear stories.
We present artists with a strong story, who create works of art that have an immediate appeal, but then turn out to have many other layers as well. Our artists work in different art forms and we are always looking for cross-links outside of the visual arts. Artists who have been ignored by general art history, such as Outsider artists, are also given a platform in the gallery.
The majority of our artists are young and they will grow with the gallery in the coming years. But we also work together with mid-career artists like Jan Hoek and Mai van Oers. We see the gallery, its artists and supporters as a family that, in addition to making a profit, aims to help grow the artists' careers, and increase the appreciation of art in general.
Gallery owners: Fleur Feringa & Wouter van Herwaarden
Feel free to contact us for any questions.
e-mail: info@galeriefleurenwouter.com. telephone: +31 6 57748299 Van Ostadestraat 43A, Amsterdam
Thursday - Sunday 12.00 - 18.00 hrs & by appointment