MANDY EL-SAYEGH
b. 1985, MalaysiaBorn in Selangor in Malaysia in 1985, Mandy El-Sayegh is of Palestinian and Chinese heritage and is based in London. In 2007 she received her BFA from the University of Westminster in London, followed by a Royal College of Art MFA that was centred on painting. Today her practice encompasses drawing, collage, painting, sound, performance, and installation – usually transforming the walls and floors of a white cube into an immersive experience that mimics the experience of her studio.
El-Sayegh is concerned with the part-to-whole relations in philosophy and science, and how fragments of information can be re-formed to generate new meaning. Her approach to visual storytelling embodies the rebellious spirit of punk’s DIY visual culture, investigating the formation and break-down of systems of order, be they bodily, linguistic, or political. Her processes of layering, erasure, and obfuscation is performative: images from magazines, newspapers, maps and false banknotes can be seen through layers of paint; text in Chinese or Arabic calligraphy also appear throughout her paintings. These references appear as archival extracts – particles from the artist’s stream of consciousness. In her ‘Net-Grid’ series, which she started in 2010, a hand-painted grid further obscures the layers while ‘holding in’ the information beneath—a literal reference to a net and the act of catching or caging.
‘The work I make always responds very directly to spaces, regions, and the research I develop in different places. My family roots are in the Middle East, so I see this partnership with Lawrie Shabibi as a chance to continue this experimentation in more depth’
—Mandy El-Sayegh
El-Sayegh has exhibited at Tichy Ocean Foundation, Zürich; Overbeck-Gesellschaft—Kunstverein Lübeck; Biennale Matter of Art, Prague (all 2023); UTA Artist Space, Los Angeles, (2022); Busan Biennale (2020); Sursock Museum, Beirut; Sculpture Center, Long Island City; Bétonsalon, Paris; Chisenhale Gallery, London (all 2019); The Mistake Room, Guadalajara; Instituto de Visión, Bogotá (both 2018); and Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing (2017), among others. She was shortlisted for the Prix Jean François Prat in 2023, as well as the Max Mara Art Prize for Women in 2017. In 2022, she took part in the performance festival MOVE 2022: Culture club - Corps collectifs at the Centre Pompidou, Paris.
Her work is held in major institutional collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE; Institute of Contemporary Art North Miami; Start Museum, Shanghai; and Tate, UK.
El-Sayegh lives and works in London.
Courtesy Lawrie Shabibi
Works at Lawrie Shabibi
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Mandy El-Sayegh in Ocula Magazine
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