Mandy McCartin

Background

Mandy McCartin was born in Sheffield, England, and went to North East London Polytechnic (now the University of East London).

Career

She describes herself as from a working-class background and this is reflected in her images which are often of characters in inner city settings, painted in an intense way with different media including spray can graffiti. Shows have included William Jackson Gallery (Cork Street), Whitechapel Open, Battersea Arts Centre, New Contemporaries (International Cooperation Administration), and James Coleman. McCartin describes her work as paintings of "real people living on the edges of society, emotional moments in the struggle to survive."

David Prudames has reviewed it as "snapshot images positively bustle with human activity, delving beneath the surface of city life"s rougher side.

Tube Girls is all attitude and Charity Shop"s colourful confusion barks out aggression to the staccato rhythm of a busy street.".

Achievements

• Stuckists founder Charles Thomson has always endorsed her work and sees it as "an intense visual confection of urban life.".