Mannington Nature Award Exhibition

The inaugural Mannington Nature Award Exhibition, part of Holt Art Projects.

Established in 2026 and supported by the Ellis family, the Mannington Nature Award celebrates artistic responses to landscape and the natural world, inviting artists to explore our relationship with nature, place and the environment.

The exhibition is shown in Mannington's new gallery space adjoining the cafe, bringing the work into a setting shaped by gardens, woodland, farmland and the changing rhythms of the natural world.

The 2026 Mannington Nature Award was judged by Veronica Sekules of Groundwork Gallery and presented to Alexander Collinson and Xinyue Ma of Elephant Vision Lab for their work Residual Currents. The piece explores the meeting point between the River Blackwater and the North Sea on Mersea Island, focusing on a solitary steel sea-defence pole repeatedly struck and submerged by the water. Combining moving image with a hand-built ceramic vessel, the work considers landscape, infrastructure, erosion and the traces left by both natural and human intervention.

Works by Sarah Rooms Heaphy, Susan Isaac and Heidi McEvoy-Swift were also highly commended by the judges.