Nina Mangalanayagam
Senior Lecturer
The Film, Photography and Literary Composition UnitAbout Nina Mangalanayagam
Nina is a visual artist working with still and moving image. Nina has a Masters in Photography from the Royal College of Art and a PhD by practice from the University of Westminster. After many years based in London, she is now based in Gothenburg and a Senior Lecturer in Photography at HDK-Valand. Previous positions include Camberwell College of Arts, London College of Communication, South Bank University, Portsmouth University and University of Westminster.
Artistic Practice
In her practice, Nina explores themes of belonging and hybridity, often using a semi-autobiographical approach. The works examine heritage, race and belonging through researching the entanglement between colonial histories, photographic traditions and details in the everyday. Her work has been widely exhibited in the UK and abroad, including Whitechapel Art Gallery, Nottingham Contemporary in the UK, Colombo Biennale, Sri Lanka, and the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Artistic Research
Nina is currently working on a collaborative research project with Louise Wolthers at the Hasselblad foundation, ‘Photography and the Glitch’, which includes the co-curated exhibition and publication Bugs and Metamorphosis (2025). She is also working on a three-year artistic research project, “Colouring-In Sweden,” funded by the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet), focusing on stories of women in Swedish colonial histories. The main case study is the colonial history between Sweden and St Barthelémy, a Swedish colony for almost a hundred years. The results will be exhibited in 2026.
Portrait photographer: Elisabeth Toll