Maria Babenko is a visual artist currently based in London, UK. She works and creates under the pseudonym of Mani Vertigo.
Mani was born in 1992, in Russia. She started to paint when she was 15. She graduated from British Higher School of Art and Design in Moscow with a diploma of higher education in Graphic Design and Illustration in 2012, and then from University of Hertfordshire with BA Graphic Design and Illustration in 2013.
Since 2010 Mani has been exhibited in several Galleries in Moscow and London. In 2013 she was featured in a live performance on opening night of the Space Warp installation during the London Design Festival.

Mani works as freelance illustrator and animator and is involved in many projects throughout the world.
Mani uses mixed media. She loves to work with oil and oil pastel; She is always looking for new materials, such as adding sand to oil paint.
Though she looks upon the creative process as an inseparable part of herself, she expends a lot of emotion, suffering and thought in each painting. It takes her less than one hour to produce a finished work.