David Mangin

My artworks, photographs and “Bengellis” Collages almost without exception, are metaphors, visual statements that hopefully pose more questions than answers. Visually ambiguous expressions that invite viewers to participate in the image making process itself. Evoke memory and trigger the imagination. On another, perhaps more deeply personal, level I try to create images that share and convey the fragile transience of our lives; the many mysteries that confound, confront and at times envelop us and I am fascinated by the dynamic infinite cycle of birth, growth, life and indeed the inevitability of death. Whether I am delving into the eloquently surreal and beautifully symbolic atmosphere of dreams or illustrating the sensuality of passion, (fleshed out in human form or illustrated perhaps more abstractly in the subjective forms of nature), my endeavor to achieve timelessness in my portraits of humanity remains an underlying constant that is fundamental to my art. Indeed, with some rare exceptions, (most expressly being my 911 twin towers triptych) it is difficult to find anything in my body of work that can lock viewers into contemporary society. The World I project is a pre visualized and re assembled combination of found ite...

Certificate of Business
Centre for Adult Education
1996

Studied for Diploma of Illustrative Photography
1982/1985. Photographic Studies College. Melbourne, Australia.

School Certificate (New Zealand)
Mana College (New Zealand)
1972

1973 Victoria University (Wellington, New Zealand) Group Exhibition. 1986 “Metamorphosis” at Printed Image Gallery (Melbourne, Australia) Solo Exhibition. 1989. “Snowfire” at Exposures Gallery (Wellington, New Zealand) Solo Exhibition. 1992. “Retrospective” Solo Exhibition of forty framed works, 422 Collins St Melbourne. 1994. “Summer Salon” Group Exhibition, Centre for Contemporary Photography. 2000. “Jewelled Daggers” at Eternal Arts Gallery (Melbourne, Australia)
PUBLICATIONS
Camera Craft April 1984, Volume 5 No 11, p 82 “Backstage”. Photoworld Volume 17 No 10, p75 “In Close”. Camera Craft June 1994, Volume 6 No 1, p62-63, 66 “Gemini”, “Untitled”. Photoworld Volume 17 No 11, p74 “The Dove”. Photoworld Volume 8 No 1, p72 “Emotion”. Photoworld Volume 8 No 4, p76 “Fire and Flowers”. Camera Craft December 1984, Volume 6 No 7, p67 “Kallista”. Photoworld Volume 8 No 6, p76 “Driftwood”. Photoworld Annual 1985, p107 “Untitled”. Camera Craft April 1985, Volume 6 No 11, p79 “Afterglow”. Camera Craft November 1986, Volume 8 No 6, Snowfire Series Portfolio: p1 “The Solitude”; p36 “The Vision”; p37 “The Betrayal” and “The Deluge”; p38 “The Consummation”. Beat Magazine No 145, June 1989. “Snowfire”. New Zealand Geogra...