Description
Josee Vesely-Manning presents a new body of work Cult Vessel, paintings and objects that see the two halves of the title drift apart and recombine: a cult is itself a kind of vessel for belief, and in an image economy built on surface, a vessel can develop a cult of its own.
Large painted banners – closer to flags or curtains than to stretched canvasses – extend this logic into colour. Forest floor and mineral outcrop sit against Soviet-brutalist housing; nail polish and the latest eyeshadow drop against moss and graffitied concrete. The palette refuses to settle on one register, countercultural or utopian, sacred or bought. The artist’s recent shift to natural mineral pigment paints puts the source of the colour quietly into the argument itself – where it comes from is part of what it means.
The paintings can be displayed hung in their entirety, folded or scrunched, depending on the space and context.
Josee Vesely-Manning is a visual artist who works with sculptural installation, often incorporating lighting, object design and expanded painting technique. In her practice she explores themes of both material obsolescence and enlivened matter within an invented and idiosyncratic universe of magic, speculative fiction and utopian proposition.
Photos by Pier Carthew.
Josee Vesely-Manning
Cult Vessel, 2026
natural mineral pigment paints on canvas
346 x 125.5 cm
