London Art Award Nomination Samantha Donnelly: 'She serves up a freakish world of fragmented intimacies. If the surrealist Hans Bellmer had been let loose in Poundland he might have created something similar. Broken armatures are decked out with amoebic limbs; organic substances abutted against geometric plastic. Bits dangle, squirm and writhe about; it's guttural kitsch, erotic farce. As playful as it is perverse, Donnelly's art is daft yet deeply serious.'

The Guardian: “She serves up a freakish world of fragmented intimacies. If the surrealist Hans Bellmer had been let loose in Poundland he might have created something similar. Broken armatures are decked out with amoebic limbs; organic substances abutted against geometric plastic. Bits dangle, squirm and writhe about; it's guttural kitsch, erotic farce. As playful as it is perverse, Donnelly's art is daft yet deeply serious.”

Samantha’s show, Contour States at the Cornerhouse, Manchester is her public gallery solo debut. Hailed as one of Manchester’s “best kept art secrets”, she originates from that very city, and received her University education from both Sheffield Hallam and Newcastle University. A primarily sculptural artist, Samantha collects fashion bargains, re-worked household goods, and variously recycled items, to create a cultural narrative. However, photography and art history have a strong voice in Samantha’s work too. Apparently venturing into the unknown time and time again, Ms Donnelly does not work towards an end result, but instead lets the work evolve. Curator Bren O’Callaghan is delighted with the end result but here admits, “There must have been 10 incarnations of the show, which was initially frustrating, but we had to let go and trust.”

Samantha was a finalist in the Northern Futures 2010 Award and has exhibited in group shows in as distinct and varying locations as Iceland, Moscow and New York to the good old East Anglian cultural hub of Norwich.