Mandy Coppes-Martin (b. Kenya, raised in South Africa) is a UK-based visual and textile artist whose practice explores fragility, memory, and transformation. Working with unconventional materials such as paper thread, raw unspun silks, vintage leather gloves, fish bones, and antique lace, she weaves and reconstitutes delicate fragments into hybrid forms that hover between drawing and sculpture. These materials — often carrying traces of lives once lived — are preserved and reconfigured into structures that reflect on impermanence, resilience, and the interconnectedness of natural and human systems.

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Her work has been exhibited widely, both locally and internationally, and is represented in private and corporate collections.

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Education

• 2004 – MA Fine Art (Cum Laude), University of Johannesburg, South Africa

• 1999 – Baccalaureus Technologiae, Fine Art, Technikon Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

• 1996 – Fine Art Diploma, Technikon Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

• 1993 – Diploma in Photography, Vaal Triangle, South Africa

• 1991 – Matriculated, Johannesburg School of Art, Ballet, Drama and Music, South Africa

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Awards

• 2026 - Bursary Awarded for new sculpture-based work, Fresh Air Exhibition, Quenington, UK 

• 2022 – QEST Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Award, UK

• 2022 – Finalist, Fine Art Textile Award, Festival of Quilts, Harrogate, UK

• 2017 – Transparency Winner, Swedish Embassy & University of Johannesburg, South Africa

• 2016 - RMB Holdings, Commissioned Artist of the Year, South Africa. 

• 2012 – SASOL New Signatures, Runner-Up, South Africa

• 2002 – Best Postgraduate Research Award, Technikon Witwatersrand, South Africa

• 1995 – Fuji Profoto Award, Bronze Medal, South Africa

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Collections

• Whitman Museum - USA 

• ABSA Bank South Africa - Absa has purchased several large installation pieces - South Africa 

• Rand Merchant Bank - Commissioned work in collection - South Africa 

• Sasol Collection - South Africa 

 

Selected Exhibitions

• 2026 - Grain and Fibre - Curated by Gregory Parsons, Ruthin Craft Centre - Ruthin, Wales 

• 2026 - Fresh Air Sculpture - Curated by Stephanie Cushing, Quenington - UK

• 2026 - Works on Paper - The Gallery at Green and Stone. London, UK 

• 2025 - Showcase Two - Haddon Hall, Bakewell, Peak District, UK.

• 2024 - Paperwork, Hub - Sleaford, Curated by Gregory Parsons, UK. 

• 2024 - Future Heritage, Curated by Corinne Julius, Chelsea Harbour, London, UK.

• 2023 – Plant Communitas Linum, R Space Gallery, Lisburn, NI

• 2023 – Plant Communitas, Sidney Nolan Trust, UK

• 2023 – Reciprocity, Spring Cheltenham, UK

• 2022 – Collect Art Fair, Somerset House, London, UK

• 2022 - Artefact - Design Centre London - In Collaboration with QEST 

• 2022 - The Art of the Exceptional - Curated by Brian Kennedy, In collaboration with QEST 

• 2022 – Into the Woods, Spring Cheltenham, UK

• 2021 – Cartographies of Becoming, Sylt, Germany

• 2021 – Lament (Solo), Hallidays Mill Gallery, UK

• 2018 – Textile Biennial, Textile Art of Today, Bratislava, Slovakia

• 2018 – Requiem to a Rain Forest, Whitman Museum, USA

• 2016 – Paper Biennial, Rijswijk Museum, Holland

• 2015 – Latent (Solo), Lizamore and Associates, Johannesburg, South Africa

• 2014 – Degree of Separation, ABSA Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

• 2013 – Killing the Goose (Solo), Lizamore and Associates, Johannesburg, South Africa

• 2001 – Fotografie (Solo), Antwerp, Belgium

• 2000 – Genetic Underclass (Solo), Turbine Hall, Johannesburg, South Africa​

 

 

 

 

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