Meet Franka Mangano: Canada’s Young Creative You Should Be Paying Attention To
Based in a small town outside Ottawa, 18 year-old artist Franka Mangano is going from strength to strength. From being named by i-D as an emerging young artist, to holding her second solo exhibition ‘Days on Earth’ this summer, Franka is rapidly and rightfully gaining attention. Her work, largely, (but not exclusively) a textured mix of acrylic and spray paint, is layered, multi-faceted and bold - presenting an enmeshing of both complex and accessible visual landscapes. Like many of us, it was during the pandemic that Franka really began to refine her creative practise and tune into her own distinct imagination. Working from an initial interest in the shapes and culture of graffiti with its playfulness and aesthetically defining outlines, Mangano’s recent work has developed its own richly detailed aesthetic environment where characters and their surroundings have become central. Over our conversation, which quickly became a passionate discussion about the importance of art and creativity, we talked community, external pressures and the use of the written word in the visual sphere.
Q. Your work includes a plethora mediums and textures, where does your drive to create, in whatever form, come from?
A. I really started to work on my creative practice and to sort of hone in on that at the beginning of the pandemic. It was a really rough time for sure. Just experiencing so many emotions and anxiety that I didn’t really know what to do with. I found that naturally I was attracted to painting and creativity as an outlet, and so it began very much as a of way of expressing what was going on, a way of challenging that anxiety of a situation where no one had any control over the circumstances. I have always been creative but I think that that was a crucial moment just to get me back into art, back into that practice and, of course, gave me the time to really develop it. It was definitely a moment of reconnection for me.
Q. What does your creative process look like?
A. It’s an interesting process, and usually super spontaneous. I have a hard time articulating it because it’s always evolving, but I find that most often I work on about two or three pieces at a time. I’ve found that I work better when I can let the pieces build off each other, and over time I’ve developed a sense of how inherent structure is to how I create. I work in layers, and so I mentally plan out the way that I will layer the paint, building over the base of the canvas and adding detail. The foundation for the background, or the border, or whatever it is, is so important for setting the tone of the piece and for informing how I execute the rest of the idea. It really comes from that and I work from there.
Q. How has your work developed over time?
A. A big difference between my newer and my older pieces is that I have started incorporating characters as a kind of focal point. That has been extremely important for me, and a big source of confidence because when I was younger I always used to love animation. I was so interested in people and the idea of creating characters I thought was just so cool. My inner reality has always been very fantastical, and being able to use that energy now on a much more evolved level of expression is so fulfilling for me. I think it’s one of the ways in which I have been able to see my confidence in my own ability visually reflected in my work.
Q. What does artistic authenticity look like for you?
A. I want to say it’s a kind of zone. That word is definitely a cliché, but there is some truth to it. It’s a space that I get to where my mind is completely engaged in what I’m doing, no thoughts other than the focus of that piece, no expectation, no external pressure – nothing other than what I feel like that specific piece needs. It’s those moments when I look at the work after and there’s that thing I can see in the actual aesthetic of the piece where I say, okay, that feels like me and I can see myself in that.
Q. Living in Canada, what is the creative community like?
A. Where I live is actually a pretty secluded area so any interactions with a wider creative community usually happen through social media. I think my art is very introspective as a result, and collaboration is not always possible too so that’s something I crave. I try really hard to make community a central aspect to my work though, and I always try to channel it whenever I can. Perhaps as a way to carve that space out for myself. I appreciate it so much whenever I get those moments where I get to meet other creatives, and speak and connect with other people. I’m always blown away by everybody else’s talent and innovation.
Q. When you start a piece, do you start with any expectations about the outcome?
A. When I’m in my studio working, there are only two things I expect from myself: honesty and freedom. A lot of that comes from the influence of graffiti in my pieces, and although I don’t consider myself a graffiti artist, I think the culture of it, its spontaneity and its unconventionality has always been very comforting to me. It helped me develop this mindset that when I do create, I can do anything knowing that I can just paint right over it. There’s so much freedom in that way of thinking, and it carves out a space for me for truly honest expression.
Q. Looking closely through your earlier pieces, the decision to include legible text is something distinct about your more recent works. What was behind that change?
A. There is one piece in particular, ‘This is Education’, one that I really really like actually where I kind of just went for it and wrote in plain words that were completely visible for people to see. Before I had always written in this sort of lettering that’s not really decipherable – sometimes I can’t even read it afterwards. I never had any hesitation with that, but with this piece I think I got to the point where there were things that I felt just needed to be said and read, and so had to be clearly written. It was an accumulation of a frustration where I thought, if no one can read this, beyond a form of expression for me and me alone, it feels almost pointless. There is something really important in that, more potential and more purpose perhaps. Writing directly is terrifying though, there is nothing to hide behind and it’s obviously easy to slip into anxiety with that. Maybe the more I do it, the more comfortable I’ll become with it or maybe not, either way it’s definitely something significant that I’m trying out.
Q. Why do you think art and creativity are so important?
A. This is actually something I think about a lot. I think a lot of artists do, I suppose as an artist it’s a question where you check yourself and think what am I doing this for? Art is so important, obviously in itself, but the implications of art as an inspiration for creativity in general are even more so. Creativity is so, so crucial, and it exists in every single thing that we do, but it can become restricted only to the domains of art when really it's so much bigger than that. As an artist the skill is the ability to take what you create and inspire someone, not even to create their own art necessarily, but to pursue another way of thinking, pursue a new opinion, another way of seeing things. Creativity is a practise for every aspect of life and at its heart I think is an open-mindedness. It starts in art because that’s where people understand it to be and where they expect it to exist, and so that’s where they go to find it and feel it. It’s the artist’s responsibility to begin that process I think.
Words by Emily Bennett
Instagram: @evbes
Email: evb.art@outlook.com
