Manuela Paz
Emerging artist, Manuela Paz, a graduate from the School of Visual Arts, is a native New Yorker currently residing in New York City and working for The Armory Show. She has been exhibiting her work in and around the New York area in group shows since 2002 and presented her first solo show at Invisible NYC in August 2006. Her photographs have been seen in many prestigious exhibits at such venues as Holland Tunnel and P.S.122’s gallery.
Ms. Paz presents photographs of female protagonists gesturing within the frame of a mirror’s reflection. They initiate a contemporary psychological exploration while subtly invoking conventions of Renaissance portraiture through their grainy image structure, the framing, and the gestures of the subjects. The work evokes a melancholy suspension with subtle accents and hesitations that suggest ambiguous narratives. Ms. Paz states:
"Beauty here is used as a tool meant to evoke a psychological
sub-text rather than its conventional purpose, as a seductive physical characteristic".
Ms. Paz’s work probes feelings of isolation, however she avoids literal imagery or metaphors. Each image invites the viewer to draw his or her own conclusions and associations. Ms. Paz’s images, cropped by the frame of a mirror further distort the sense of time and place. They advance as cells from a surrealist movie that lack either time or narrative but instead invite the viewers’ sense of nostalgia and fantasy to unfold. The result is a romantically ambiguous voyeuristic experience to a tableau of charged dioramas, doorways to intimate moments of ambiguous narratives. Inspired by the artist’s own psycho-analytical introspection, the viewer gazes on a woman who seems to have no precise ethnicity, location, or place in time.
Ms. Paz uses a sensual, suggestive, and feminine language to create a series of scenarios that evoke a suspended emotional and psychological state.
Born: New York, NY, 1977
Currently lives in New York and works for
The Armory Show.
EDUCATION
1999-2003
SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS, NY, NY
B.F.A., Photography
1997-1999
THE NEW SCHOOL, NY, NY
Continuing Education, concentration: Photography
EXHIBITIONS
2006
GALLERY W52, Group Photography Show, NY, NY
ARTISTS SPACE, Night of a Thousand Drawings, NY, NY
INVISIBLE NYC, Mirror, Solo debut, NY, NY
PS122 GALLERY, Bearings: the Female Figure, NY, NY
I-20 GALLERY,LREI Benefit Auction, NY, NY
2005
ARTISTS SPACE, Night of a Thousand Drawings, NY, NY
HOAST, HARLEM OPEN ARTISTS STUDIO TOUR, NY NY
HOLLAND TUNNEL GALLERY, Babes, Bklyn, NY
SlideLuckPotShow, led by Casey Kelbaugh, NY, NY
Avenue B Garden Summer Slideshow, NY NY
2004
GALLERY 402, OIA Affordable Art for the Holidays, NY, NY
BRENT SIKKEMA, Postcards from the Edge, NY, NY
THE CREATIVE CENTER, 9 x 12 Show and Sale, NY, NY
ARTISTS SPACE, Night of a Thousand Drawings, NY, NY
EA50: HEREART ANNUAL RAFFLE INSTALLATION, Curated by Ellen Staller and Rocio Aranda-Alvarado, NY NY
ROOFTOP CABARET, slide show, NY, NY
PLAN B, Portrayal, curatorial debut, NY, NY
SlideLuckPotShow, led by Casey Kelbaugh, NY, NY
2003
ARTISTS SPACE, Night of a Thousand Drawings, NY, NY
AFFORDABLE ART FAIR, Art Fair, represented by SVA Galleries, NY, NY
AFFINITY GALLERY, Emerging Photographers, NY
SVA, EASTSIDE GALLERY, Subjective Landscapes, NY, NY
SVA, WOOSTER GALLERY, Mentor Show, NY, NY
SMOKE, Photographs, NY, NY
2002
PARSONS, Parsons/ SVA collaboration, NY, NY
WWW.SVA.EDU, Emerge, Internet
EIKHOLT GALLERY, Empirical Art Show, NY, NY
SMOKE, Things, NY, NY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Visual Arts Journal, Visual Arts Briefs, Getting Their Bearings, 3/31/2006
Visual Arts Journal, Visual Arts Briefs, Spring 2003
AAF, cover image & pg. 68, 2003
Halm, Dan, Emerge: The Transition from Student to Professional, Sva.com, 2003
DOWNBEAT, Jim Hall July, 2001
SLIDE LIBRARIES
ONGOING
White Columns- Curated Artist Registry
Artists Space-The Irving Sandler Artists File Online
Re-title, Online Art Directory
The Saatchi Gallery, Your Gallery, Online Art Directory
LECTURES
Alumni Panel for SVA Admissions Office, 2004
After Art School, led by Stephen Frailey, Thesis Class, SVA, 2004
Photograph 13 x 9 inches
Photograph 14 x 19 inches
Photograph 13 x 9 inches
by artist Adam Simon
and commissioned by
All artworks copyright by their respective owners.