Zora Mann
Zora Star Cahusac Mann (1979, Amersham, England) was born in the UK and spent her childhood shifting between Europe, Africa, and America.
She attended art school at Villa Arson in Nice, France, where she developed her distinct, hypersaturated artistic voice. Mann’s identifiable aesthetic ventures into the realms of disparate experiences and scores of interests. Her vibrating, psychedelic expression finds influence in folklore, geometry, dreamlike shifts, vibrant, affective color palettes, and surreal repetition that moves in relation to so many other competing movements. Leaning into psychic change, memory, and visceral registers of emotion, Mann explodes in color onto canvases, sculptures, etchings, murals, ceramics, and shields. Shields and talisman for Mann, is an incantation of therapeutic mitigation, porous membranes exploring the tender machinations of healing. Theoretical musings on fragmentation and the philosophical ticks of psychology, science fiction, literature, and natural structures, show up in bold, inquisitive creative displacement. Fractures and aesthetic bursts allude to states of mind that invite the cooperation of the involute unconscious, and she enters this risky zone with equal trepidation and innovative confidence. Mann’s hallucinogenic manifestations pulsate and throb, challenging us to drift in and out of the incorporeal in kaleidoscopic mutation.
Zora Mann’s work has been exhibited at: Berlinische Galerie; Villa Arson, Nice; Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden Baden; Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin; Palais De Tokyo, Paris; BKV-Brandeburgischen Kunstverein, Potsdam.
Collections: Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur, Berlin; Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin; Frac Poitou-Charentes, France; MAMAC, Modern and Contemporary Art Museum, Nice.
Education
2009
DNSEP (Master of Arts)
2006
DNEP (Bachelor of Arts)
2004-2009
Academy of Contemporary Art and Research “Villa Arson”, Nice
2003
Preparatory Studies, Ateliers Glacière, Paris, France
Residencies
Villa Arson, 2019
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2024
Solo show, Flock of None, Berlin
I dreamt of tearing the storm into fragments, In collaboration with Heike Kabisch, Grisebach x ChertLüdde, Berlin
2023
Solo exhibition, Studio Mondial, Berlin
2022
Nectar Hive, ChertLüdde, Berlin
2021
Solo Exhibition, Kreuzberg Pavilion, Berlin
2020
Stringfigures and Watercolours Zora Mann and Vivien Cahusac de Caux, ChertLüdde Showroom, Berlin
Wanganga, curated by Eric Mangion, Villa Arson, Nice
2018
Being and your own form, ChertLüdde, Berlin
2017
Statements, Art Basel, with ChertLüdde, Berlin
Doppelgänger, curated by Imke Kannegießer, 45cbm studio space, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden Baden
2015
Fiac – Foire International d’Art Contemporain, La Fayette Sector, Paris
Coagula, Chert, Berlin
2014
Open-Field-Test, Chert, Berlin
Tequila Sunrise, Fine Furniture Gallery, Berlin
2012
Sundown, Cussler, Berlin
2010
Growth Readiness, Macumba Night Club, Nice
Group Exhibitions
2023
My Demons My Angels, ChertLüdde, Berlin
House of dreamers, curated by Anne-Laure Lestage, Villa Empain – Fondation Boghossian, Brussels
2022
Paint it all! Aktuelle Malerei aus Berlin, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin
La Courage des Oiseaux, La Station, Nice
Paradoxales, FRAC Poitou-Charentes, Linazay
2021
MERZBAU-GARTEN • Module III, Kinderhook and Caracas, Berlin
2020
Wide Open, Curated by Stefanie Heckmann, Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur, Berlin
2019
Freigänger, Curated by Crispin Gurholt and Helga-Marie Nordby, The Knast, Berlin
A Shiver in Search of a Spine, Arario Gallery, Samcheong, Korea
All The Small Things, curated by Alessandro Buganza and Margherita Castiglioni, Alessandro Buganza, Milan
2018
The Shrine of Friendship, curated by Manuel Kirsch, BKV-Brandeburgischen Kunstverein, Potsdam
Condo, hosted by Union Pacific, London
2017
Interface(s) – Tales of Babel, curated by Lucile Bouvard, Haus am Lützowplatz – Studio Galerie, Berlin
2016
Global Female Inventories, curated by NOTE ON, Project Space Festival, Berlin
Group presentation at ART-O-RAMA, Marseille
Group presentation at Art Cologne, with Chert, Berlin
You Can See the Weakness of a Man Right Through His Iris, in an apartment Rigaerstrasse 69, Berlin
Leaping over a bush to surprise a quail, Chert, Berlin
2015
Lügen, Atelier in der Oranienstrasse 189, Berlin
Group presentation at Art Cologne, with Chert, Berlin
2014
Iao Oo, Studio Hodori & Studio Niculescu, Berlin
Hotspot Va, Commissariat À Treize, Paris
2013
Interior 301, Galerie Alain Gutharc, Paris
Reits, Schaufenster, Berlin
Where The Wild Things Go, Fine Furniture Gallery, Berlin
2012
Partouse, Berlin
Ballungsrum, Kosmetiksalon Babette, Berlin
2011
J’aime Les Femmes Et Je Le Prouve, Espace À Débattre, Nice
Ryhmänäytelly, Macumba Nightclub, Nice
2010
Coulis De Framboises, Kit Invite, Palais De Tokyo, Paris
Hic, Villa Arson, Nice
Thriller, Berlin
2009
Birds Love Fish, Chert , Berlin
Santé, Galerie De La Marine, Nice
Pavillon Arson, 54e Édition Du Salon De Montrouge
Écotone, La Station, Nice
No Way Nevermind, Insitut Française, Dresden
Bibliography – Selected Articles
2022
“„Paint it all!“ in der Berlinischen Galerie.In der Hauptstadt wird einfach weitergemalt” by Jens Hinrichsen, Tagessiegel, 13 November, online.
“Junge Berliner Malerei passt in keine Schublade: „Paint it all!“ zeigt, was geht” by Ingeborg Ruthe, Berliner Zeitung, 28 October, online.
2020
“Rhythmic Repetition and Hybridized Memories: Sol Calero and Zora Mann at Villa Arson, Nice” by Giovanna Manzotti on Mousse Magazine, online.
“Sol Calero, Zora Mann and Shailesh BR at Villa Arson” on studio international, online.
2018
“Five Shows to See at Condo 2018” by Cheyenne Julien on Elephant, 15 January 2018.
2017
“Eight Galleries to See at Art Basel” by Emily Steer on Elephant.
2015
“Zora Mann, Painter”, interview on Studio Beat, October 2015.
“Artist’s Diary – Zora Mann”, ATP DIARY, May 2015.
2012
“Zora Mann” by Nella Beljan on Freunde von Freunden, 10 September 2012.
Catalogues – Publications
2023
“House of Dreamers,” edited by Louma Salamé, Boghossian Foundation, 2023, Brussels, BE. ISBN: 9782931001066
2017
“Bicéphale”, artist’s book by Zora Mann and Marion Andrieu
“The Daughter of the Easter Egg”, artist’s book, published by ChertLüdde & Motto, Berlin
2015
“Cosmophagy. Zora Mann and Julie Church”, artist’s book, published by Chert & Motto, Berlin
2014
“Zora Mann’s Magical Coloring Book”, artist’s book, Chert & Motto Books, Berlin