David Mankin is a British painter known for his compelling abstractions of the landscape. His paintings explore form, colour and surface, drawing on a deep well of mark-making techniques and painterly expression embodying risk and change. Cornwall is his source, an ancient, wild landscape surrounded by sea and carved out by the perpetual flux of the elements.
Interludes is a journey through the shifting atmospheres of the Cornish coast. In this new body of work, Mankin explores the transient nature of the boundary between land and sea. Walking and immersing himself in the landscape is where his process begins. Thoughts unravel amongst the beauty of nature, unlocking memories, feelings, emotions. Sensory pauses. Interludes. Spaces where connections are made, charged with the rhythms, textures and moods of the coast. Fleeting glimpses between storms, shifting light conditions, the quiet before the next wave. Each piece becomes a visual interlude - an abstraction of the landscape’s mood rather than its form. A place for the viewer to pause, reflect, unearth meaning and access memories.
Intuitively, Mankin conjures with these interludes using a layered, gestural approach, bringing together opposing forces in a single composition: fullness and space, simplicity and complexity, control and freedom. His layered, transitional approach is rooted in the idea of palimpsest, reworking existing forms and pushing the canvas beyond its limits. Artistic freedom characterises these new paintings, bringing together the raw, fresh energy of paint application with rich mark-making, resulting in works that resonate on an emotional level. Works that create a rhythm of stillness and movement, like the coast itself - never static, always becoming.
Interludes is David Mankin’s second solo exhibition with &Gallery. He exhibits his work in respected galleries throughout the UK and his paintings are held in numerous private and public collections. A book about his paintings and process, David Mankin – Remembering in Paint, was published in 2021 and a second book, David Mankin — Language of Paint, will be published in 2026.
