Artists

Catherine Manchester was born in Auckland in 1957 and gained a BA in Literature at Victoria University, Wellington. She studied at the Ilam Art School from 1979 and graduated with a Diploma in Fine Arts from Dunedin Polytechnic in 1984. She has been exhibiting successfully since 1986 and her work is held in private and public collections throughout New Zealand. In 1986 Manchester was a recipient of a Creative New Zealand Grant and the following year she was awarded the Rita Angus Residency. She currently resides in Wellington.

Her diverse and extensive education is reflected in the many influences that invest her art. Her work is both expressionist and abstract, avant garde and classical; with the deliberate brushwork of Rembrandt and the stylistic intensity of Francis Bacon. Her paintings have strong gestural qualities but also the constructed elements of formal abstraction. The technique of building up the layers of paint then rubbing back is a deliberate method of treatment that adds resonance to the rhythm of the free brush work.

Catherine Manchester – Bio 2018

I began my art studies at Canterbury university in 1979 after completing a BA in English Literature at Victoria. In 1984 I graduated from Otago School of Art, majoring in painting. During the 1990s I lived and exhibited in Christchurch. I exhibited widely in galleries in Christchurch including the Loft and Brooke Gifford Gallery. I showed at Teko Teko Gallery in Palm Springs USA in 1993 and returned in 2014 with a solo in New York. In 2000 my work went into the publication Art on Tour curated by the McDougall Art Gallery which toured nationally to schools. I had my graffiti word paintings studied for NCEA art at New Plymouth Boys High School. In 2005 I participated in the Christchurch International Arts festival with a solo Figure Fictions at the Arthouse and was represented the same year at the Auckland Art Fair. I have had several public art gallery solos including the Forrester, Aigantighe and most recently Aratoi Art Gallery in 2013. I exhibited for 10 years with Ferner Gallery and was collected widely throughout New Zealand and overseas. I have worked out of the same studio in Wellington for 20 years. In 2015 a survey show of my work was curated by Greg Chaston and shown at the NZAFA Wellington.