David Manley

Manley’s practice, though focussed on painting, is plural, hard to categorise and pin down. Themes include responses to landscape, locations and events, previously an exotic examination of viruses, portraits ‘for’ fictional Scandinavian detectives, and reflections on Heart Surgery. Supports and media are determined by the perceived needs of each series or groups of works. Currently his focus is on two projects; modest sized canvases of locations across Leicestershire for a series titled ‘Ritual in the Heart of Rural England’ that presently comprises 140 panels and a group of shaped oil and mixed media works on recycled cardboard that explores abstracted landscapes, woodlands and coasts.

Biography
David Manley attended the Art Schools in Exeter, Falmouth, & Birmingham where he gained his Higher Diploma in Painting before taking up a Fellowship at Cheltenham Art School in 1975. His career includes exhibitions in Italy, Portugal & Japan as well as across the UK. His solo shows have included Derby Art Gallery & the Angear Gallery at Nottingham University’s Arts Centre with a forthcoming exhibition at The Wireworks Project in Derbyshire in Spring 2027. He worked in Arts Administration and Higher Education, latterly as Dean of Art & Design at Derby University, before concentrating on painting full time in 2017.