Jasmine Mansbridge
Conjuring mystic, surrealist worlds that play with geometry and architecture, Jasmine Mansbridge’s colourful artworks are a blend of storytelling and escapism.
Words: Emma-Kate Wilson I Photography: Armelle Habib
Photo: Armelle Habib
Photo: Armelle Habib
Australian artist Jasmine Mansbridge has been creating art for over twenty years; in that time, raising her family of five children and moving around Australia. Today, the art is a full-time career with exhibitions at Koskela, Curatorial & Co, BOOM Gallery, and Van Rensburg Galleries — extending from paintings to murals, sculptures, installations, and digital animations.
‘It has been an unconventional and winding path to here, but I am so incredibly grateful for all of it. The highs and lows included. I have travelled and painted and had many adventures because of my art,’ the artist muses. ‘I am grateful for my childhood and the curiosity and desire for freedom my parents instilled in me.’
Based in a small regional Victorian town, Hamilton, Jasmine grew up moving around Australia with trips to the outback, jumping between several Queensland towns. Her family settled in Katherine in the Northern Territory, and she lived here until she was 26.
Though Jasmine didn’t study art formally or finish secondary school, she found herself inspired by the rich Aboriginal history in the NT — engaging with the cohort of artists, family, and friends, and artworks filled with symbolism and stories.
As a result, Jasmine has also found her own language of symbols. ‘I use [them to] tell my own stories, and that of our shared humanity. This was never something I intended to do,’ she says. ‘But I see now that I observed the use of symbols, circles, lines and shapes to tell stories and that this shaped my own ideas on what art could be and the potential for work to be not only aesthetically pleasing, but for it to be embedded with meaning and personal narrative.’
Today, the artist includes several forms repetitively in her work, a Thought Catcher (Cube), a Five Point Portal (Pyramid), Dream Gazebo (Hexagon) and Three Point Portals (Triangle). Through these motifs, Jasmine seeks out inspiration from history, Greek mythology, mysticism, the afterlife, philosophy, and the experience of being human — consuming audiobooks while she works.
Also drawn to the aesthetics of architecture as a small child, Jasmine was inspired by the patterns and designs in stained glass windows of churches, mosaics and more. ‘My brain has always loved structure, line, shadow, and form. I love industrial areas, docks and ports, cities, shapes and often think of how this contrasts with the organic and natural form of our human lives.’
‘I believe something of the artist is embedded in every brushstroke, and so with my work, I wish for it to bring joy and meditative contemplation into all the spaces it occupies,’ says Jasmine Mansbridge. Photo: Armelle Habib
‘My approach to making art has always been very intuitive, and I am very informal and relaxed about every aspect of my practice,’ says Jasmine Mansbridge. Photo: Armelle Habib
“I am a big observer of life; I write a lot of verse which inspires ideas for work. I equally like to be alone with my thoughts and then to be with people I can bounce them off. I’ve been making art for so long now that there is a flow that I can step into.”
‘I am in love with the actual process of making the work, the physicality of it, so part of me is always having to reconcile this part of my practice with the planning for future exhibitions and projects,’ says Jasmine Mansbridge. Photo: Armelle Habib
‘I start on a high, the middle feels long and arduous as my work is so detailed, and then I am on a high again when it’s complete.,’ says Jasmine Mansbridge. Photo: Armelle Habib
Yet, predominately, the artworks stem from Jasmine’s vivid dreams. ‘I am someone who dreams very vividly and frequently; over the years, these utopian dream worlds and the essence of this is something I seek to capture.’
Working between her Hamilton studio and one in Geelong, Jasmine jumps between paintings and her large-scale installations. The physicality of making the art is engrained into her practice. Each of her works are embedded with her distinct approach to life — she hopes they are a joy for those who see them.
After dropping her children at school, Jasmine heads up to a peak in the Grampians, setting her up for a productive day in the Hamilton studio. For her Geelong days, she often wakes early to walk the Barwon River or swim in the ocean.
‘Exercise is crucial to my overall well-being and helps me physically with the practical aspect of making my art,’ says Jasmine. ‘The Geelong studio is like a residency space for me and allows me to deep dive into my work and helps me to be able to devote the time needed to make the work in a more focused way.’
This year is set to be a busy one, with a painting and NFT in a group show at the newly launched JEFA GALLERY, Byron Bay, in April. In addition, one of her sculptures will be exhibited at Swell Sculpture Festival in September, and an NFT piece has recently been accepted onto Superrare. Later in the year, Jasmine travels to Tunisia for a residency and exhibition in Tunisia, followed by an exciting trip to Frieze, London, in 2023.
With a practice that combines both an intuitive and relaxed approach, the artist concludes, ‘I want to make work which is a blend of storytelling and escapism, capturing a kind of innocence and simplicity which is in contrast to our day to day lives.’
