Biography

After completing a Master’s degree in Architecture in Paris, Natacha Mankowski worked for several years as an architect alongside Jean Nouvel, Dominique Perrault and Vito Acconci before turning to painting. Her practice is characterised by an exuberant use of impasto, through which she creates textured and spatial forms that bring her paintings close to the realm of sculpture. While her compositions may at times appear abstract, they evoke the plans and maps used in architectural design and urban planning.

Her work exists at the intersection of geology and alchemy. She develops her own colours and oil pastels using minerals collected during field research. She takes a particular interest in sites such as quarries and mines, where architects and builders source raw materials. Positioned between nature and the built environment, these transitional sites are places where natural resources are extracted, transformed into materials, and ultimately incorporated into buildings and other modern technologies.

Research Project at Fondation Martell

During her residency, Natacha Mankowski developed a project centred on geology, terroir and material transformation. Drawing on the mineral resources found beneath the Charente region, the artist produced materials that could be used not only for painting but also for sculpture.

For the first time, she applied her process of producing pictorial matter to a series of glass sculptures combining limestone, clay, silica sand, wax and linseed oil. These works offer new material interpretations of the landscapes, soils and subsoils of the Charente region.

Interim Results from the Residency

The residency unfolded through several stages. An initial phase focused on the production of oil crayons made from linseed oil and minerals sourced from local quarries. These crayons were used both to colour and texture the very tools employed for drawing and painting.

This was followed by a process of composition using collected and transformed materials. Finally, a series of experiments involving sampled glass were reworked into textured glass pastes, enabling collected and fabricated materials to be fused with glass and transformed into composite sculptural forms.

Place within the Labo Almanach

This process of deconstructing material through an entire cycle of collection, sampling and transformation into sculptural objects offers insight into the technical relationships that turn matter into texture and texture into form.

This stratigraphic approach sustains the idea of preserving traces of the transformation process for as long as possible within the production of the artwork. Natacha Mankowski’s practice establishes a sensitive framework for understanding the productive journey embedded within the transformation of raw material into object.

Resources Involved

• Fondation Martell Glass Studio
• Local quarries