ILANA MANOLSON
A botanist and former naturalist for Parks Canada, Ilana Manolson walks through nature on nearly a daily basis. While she used to paint directly from life for years, her recent works are primarily made from recollection. They aim to merge and connect many miles of disparate stretches of landscape, fusing a variety of impressions into a singular image. Skillfully layered, Manolson’s subjects range from views of epic ex- panse to close studies of nature’s intricate details. Many of these she observes by revis- iting particular places repeatedly, making the passing of time a central notion of her work and with that the fragility of existence.
Manolson was born in 1956 in Calgary, Alberta. She received a degree from Goddard College where she studied botany and art (1978), and a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (1982). She is a recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship for Painting, a St. Botolph Artist Grant, and an Artists Foundation Installation Grant, to name a few. Institutional exhibitions of her work include the Danforth Museum of Art, Southern New Hampshire University; Tufts University Art Gallery; Concord Art Museum; Boston Public Library; Endicott College, Beverly,; Gordon College; Ballin Castle Museum; Regis College; and the De Cordova Museum, among others. Her work is in the permanent collections of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; De Cordova Museum, Lincoln, MA; Fuller Museum of Art, Brockton, MA; Danforth Museum, Framingham, MA; Boston Public Library, Boston, MA; Boston Athenaeum, Boston, MA; Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Ireland, and the Berkeley Museum of Art, CA, among others. She lives and works in Concord, Massachusetts and Sausalito, California.
Ilana Manolson, Walking Walden, 2015, Acrylic on Yupo paper, 38 x 45 1/2 inches.
