Ninety Degrees
By Isabel Manalo
Show Runs: November 4 - December 31, 2023
Artist Talk: Sunday, Nov. 5 at 4pm
3 Roads | 118 East Church Street, 118 East Church Street, Frederick, MD 21701
Isabel Manalo is an Artist’s Artist. She is a pro who not only maintains her own studio practice and exhibition schedule, but also guides countless other artists with aesthetic and academic counsel. Manalo’s paintings possess an uncommon transcendence and mysticism. Yet they are essentially simple and familiar in their subject matter, often with her two young daughters engaged in exploration and wonder amid the natural world. The jewel-like glances of vivid translucent color so musically applied to the picture plane provide a sense of hopeful providence and even joy. Manalo has been exhibiting her work internationally since 1999. Her art works are included in several public and private collections, such as the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, the permanent collections of U.S. Embassies in Bulgaria, Philippines, Kazakhstan and Nepal. Manalo is currently an Adjunct Professor at American University and George Mason University and serves as an Artist Mentor at Lesley University in Boston, MA. She is the Founder and Chief Collaborator of The Studio Visit, an art journal featuring artist interviews with artists in their studios.
“Lately painting for me has become a release and expression of my drawing process. That which is more immediate, gestural, imperfect and ephemeral and yet still driven by a highly saturated palette and layering of marks and pattern. Images of faces and bodies comingle with familiar plant life and foliage and bouquets of flowers that have been given and received in all the exchanges of hello's and goodbyes. Cues from media of current events pop up as does the pre-colonial script from the Philippines.”- Isabel Manalo
