About

Born near Sydney, Nicholas Manning studied literature, art history and painting in Brisbane on Australia's east coast. A graduate of the École Normale Supérieure and the Sorbonne, he completed a doctorate at the University of Strasbourg. He then lived in London and Rome before settling in Lyon. A lecturer and researcher in art and literature at Grenoble Alpes University, his artistic practice centres on oils, soft pastel and linocut.

Shaped by Symbolist, Fauvist and Nabi traditions, his aesthetic draws on a metaphysical yet playful imaginary. His fantastical landscapes, often populated by otherworldly beings, are not reflections of this world but echoes of a vibrant beyond, where hidden threats nevertheless lurk.

Influenced by the vibrant landscapes of Félix Vallotton, Marc Chagall and Maurice Denis, and by the emotional intensity of Expressionism — from Munch's charged skies to Schiele's restless line — he also explores the power of narrative painting, whose remnants of rituals and stories remain ambiguous or incomplete. Through their recurring presence and opaque activities, the diminutive beings who populate his works recall the distant scenes of Brueghel and the Flemish school. In contemporary painting, he draws as much on the atmospheres of metaphysical mystery of Inka Essenhigh, Hurvin Anderson or Peter Doig, as on the faux-naïf of Craigie Aitchison or Karine Rougier.

His work is inspired by various currents of spiritual representation in art history — from pagan art to Orthodox icons and Greco-Latin frescoes — though it remains tied to no specific religious tradition. Influenced by the symbolism of Odilon Redon in France, Eugène Jansson in Sweden and Sidney Nolan in Australia, he seeks to capture the manifestations of an invisible world at the heart of our everyday materiality. The creatures, ghosts or spirits that float above these landscapes thus seem to occupy a liminal space, at the borders not only of waking and dreams, but the worlds of the living and the dead.

Resident artist at La Galerie-Ateliers L'Alcôve on the slopes of the Croix-Rousse in Lyon, his works can be found at the gallery and in private collections in Lyon, Paris, and along the Mediterranean coast. His research and practice engage in particular with the rich traditions of the Lyon school of painting.

Biographie

Ancien élève de l'École normale supérieure, Nicholas Manning vit et travaille à Lyon, où il est artiste résident à la Galerie-Ateliers L'Alcôve et enseignant-chercheur à l'Université Grenoble Alpes. Il développe sa pratique artistique autour de la peinture à l'huile, du pastel, et de la gravure. Ses œuvres figurent dans des collections privées à Paris, Lyon et dans le sud de la France, et ont été présentées dans des expositions individuelles et collectives en France.

Sa production puise dans un imaginaire à la fois métaphysique et ludique. Les paysages fantastiques qu'il crée sont peuplés d'êtres d'un autre monde ; ils ne reflètent pas le réel mais un au-delà vibrant, dialoguant avec les traditions symbolistes, expressionnistes, fauves et nabi, de Félix Vallotton et Edvard Munch à Peter Doig et Karine Rougier.

Né près de Sydney en Australie en 1982, il s'est initié à la peinture à l'huile à Brisbane, avant de poursuivre des études de lettres à Paris, à l'ENS et à la Sorbonne, puis d'obtenir son doctorat à l'Université de Strasbourg. Son parcours académique nourrit sa pratique et sa réflexion sur les imaginaires. Après des séjours à Londres et Rome, il s'est définitivement installé à Lyon, où il poursuit ses recherches artistiques en lien notamment avec les traditions de la peinture lyonnaise.

Education & Training

Bachelor of Arts in Literary Studies & Formal Training in Oil Painting – University of Queensland, 2003

École Normale Supérieure, Ulm – International Selection (Humanities), 2003–2006

Master’s in Comparative Literature – Sorbonne, 2006

Ph.D. in Comparative Literature – University of Strasbourg, 2009