Mandy Rodger’s paintings are characterised by their sweeping, gestural energy - works that move beyond representation to embrace the immediacy of paint itself.
Bold brushstrokes and shifting fields of colour recall the physicality of Abstract Expressionism, yet her practice is deeply personal, grounded in intuition, embodiment, and the desire to create spaces of emotional resonance. The result is painting as an encounter: an energetic exchange between artist, canvas, and viewer.
Her path into art reflects a decisive turning point in her life. Moving from a career in law, Mandy began studying painting in 2014 at Browne School of Art in Auckland. Since 2018, she has been based at Studio 6, a vibrant shared artist space in downtown Auckland. She exhibits regularly in both solo and group exhibitions, with her works increasingly sought after by collectors for their vitality and depth.
Mandy’s paintings sit within a tradition of gestural abstraction that stretches from the mid-20th century, while also reflecting a more current interest in embodiment and the sensory experience of mark-making. Her canvases are not pre-planned but emerge from a dynamic interplay of control and release, where intuition guides the hand and materiality asserts itself.
Colour is central to her process. Applied in bold movements or layered, it operates both emotionally and structurally—at times expansive and immersive, at others tightly bound within the arc of a gesture. In this way, her works balance raw immediacy with a meditative quality, opening a space where viewers can bring their own subjectivity into the experience.
For collectors, Mandy’s paintings offer not only visual impact but enduring engagement. They are works that reward time and attention, revealing shifting resonances as light, memory, and mood interact with the surface. In each piece, the dialogue between spontaneity and structure mirrors the complexities of human experience, making her paintings both universal in their language and deeply personal to those who live with them.