New monograph.
Over the past two decades, Australian artist Nicholas Mangan has created a compelling body of work that considers humanity's relationship to the natural world, taking everything from coral rubble to cryptocurrency as a point of departure.
Mangan's art locates human history in the context of deep geological time. With a focus on Australia's place in the Pacific, his works reflect on how social, political and economic upheaval are connected to the material world, offering new perspectives on pressing global issues, such as the impact of extractive mining on natural resources and climate change.
Published to coincide with the Australian artist's survey exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, A World Undone showcases works created by an artist pushing sculpture to new limits. This richly illustrated publication combines artwork, archival and process imagery, and includes an extended interview with the artist, as well as new essays by key thinkers in the fields of anthropology, philosophy, political economy and art history.
Alert to both history and
science, Nicholas Mangan (born 1979, Geelong, Victoria, lives and works in Melbourne) is a multi-disciplinary artist known for interrogating narratives embedded in a diverse range of objects. With a keen interest in the processes of forming meaning from objects, culture and natural phenomena, Mangan creates unnerving drawings, montages, sculptures and installations. His work addresses a wide range of themes, including the ongoing impacts of
colonialism, humanity's fraught relationship with the
natural environment, contemporary consumptive cultures and the complex dynamics of the
global political economy.
Mangan completed a two year studio residency at Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, in 2002. He has been awarded numerous international residencies, including Recollets Artist Residency, Paris, 2011 and Australia Council's New York Green Street Residency, 2006. In 2007 he was a recipient of the Anne and Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship, resulting in post graduate studies at Universität der Künste in Berlin, Germany.
