12. Mandy Payne - Sunlight and Shadows

2026
Spray paint and oil on concrete
12 x 12 x 3 cm

Mandy Payne is a Sheffield-based painter and printmaker whose work explores urban landscape, Brutalist architecture, social housing and the social consequences of gentrification. Her practice is deeply connected to the built environment, often focusing on overlooked or disappearing structures and the communities attached to them.

Payne’s paintings are notable for their use of materials with a direct physical relationship to the subjects depicted, particularly concrete and spray paint, reinforcing the tactile and architectural qualities of the buildings she portrays. Alongside painting, she works extensively in stone lithography, bringing a similarly layered and material-driven approach to printmaking.

She studied Fine Art at the University of Nottingham between 2011 and 2013, following an HND in Fine Art at Sheffield College. From 2015 to 2018 she undertook a Fellowship in Stone Lithography at Leicester Print Workshop. Prior to her artistic career, Payne trained and worked in dentistry, earning degrees from the University of Leeds and the University of Manchester.

Her work has been widely exhibited across the UK. Selected exhibitions include the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition (2014–2024), Where We Live at Sheffield Millennium Gallery and Lakeside Art Centre, Nottingham (2023), Out Of The Ordinary at Saul Hay Gallery (2022), John Moores Painting Prize at the Walker Art Gallery (2014 and 2020), and numerous solo exhibitions including Beauty All Around Us at Stapleford Granary, Cambridge (2025).

Payne has received several significant awards, including the ING Discerning Eye North of England Regional Prize (2025), the Arts Council England Award (2015 and 2019), the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Award (2017), First Prize at the New Light Arts Prize (2015), and runner-up in the John Ruskin Prize (2014). She was also shortlisted for the top prize in the John Moores Painting Prize in 2014.

Her work is held in major public and private collections including the Yale Center for British Art, the Devonshire Collection at Chatsworth House, the Ruskin Collection at Sheffield Millennium Gallery, the University of Sheffield Art Collection, and the University of Salford Art Collection.