painting and sketching in Sydney, Australia.

Manning developed a keen interest in visual arts from a very young age. Growing up in rural NSW, Kim was surrounded by a lot of natural beauty. The creeks and mountains engulfing her family property meant no shortage of visual inspiration. Manning attributes her early artistic inclination to the combination of idyllic scenery and the solitude of living in the bush. She could often be found painting or sketching on anything in sight.

Completing her BVA and honours degree with first class results at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney in 2013, Manning’s dissertation and studio works explored the tensions that surface when sexually explicit imagery is presented in an artistic space. By referencing pornographic magazines, websites, personal memories and fantasies, Kimberley disaggregates and reinterprets sexually explicit themes in her practice, primarily using watercolour paint, acrylic paint, pastel, charcoal and pencil to create a fusion of high and low art forms. 

In her work, Kimberley often engages with the personal concern that contemporary culture is controlled and mediated by images, blurring the line between the real and the represented. She explores the idea that the hyperreal and oversaturated world of hardcore pornography creates a dissociative effect in viewers and fosters an unrealistic idea of what sex should be like.

In an attempt to combat this notion, Manning depicts erotic tableaux that are rife with passion and vulnerability, promoting a sense of seduction and encouraging our imagination to create the rest of the story. It is through embedding moments of sensitivity and intimacy with caresses and soft touches in her explicit scenes that we can relate to her subjects.

Working with all colours and shapes, rarely depicting skin colour, and steering from solely heteronormative work, Kimberley has consistently worked with this theme for over 10 years.

Kimberley is currently working as a full-time artist from her home studio in Sydney’s inner west. She has been involved in various solo and group exhibitions in NSW and VIC and has consistently sold her pieces both nationally and internationally.