{"id":294385,"date":"2025-11-20T00:42:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T00:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/294385\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T00:42:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T00:42:11","slug":"memory-and-novelty-converge-for-manuela-solano-who-adopted-a-new-process-after-losing-her-sight-colossal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/294385\/","title":{"rendered":"Memory and Novelty Converge for Manuela Solano, Who Adopted a New Process After Losing Her Sight \u2014 Colossal"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Manuela Solano<\/a> delineates a cheekbone or shapes the chiseled torso of a cowboy standing tall, precisely placed nails, tape, and pipe cleaners offer guidance. The artist, who is blind, works intuitively, feeling out the areas she and her team have marked and trusting that together, the desired imagery will emerge. \u201cI try to force myself to keep [the shapes] faster and looser, which feels great,\u201d she adds. \u201cIt makes the process more playful.\u201d<\/p>\n

At just 26, medical malpractice in her HIV treatments caused Solano to lose her sight. She\u2019s since adapted to new ways of working, as she taps into both her memory and imagination to produce paintings that reflect her concerns and joys. \u201cMy work is always, on some level, about myself. I make work about either my taste, my yearnings, or something I see of myself in someone else,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

A beautiful film by Barbara Anastacio for T Magazine\u2014which was made in 2018 before the artist\u2019s gender transition\u2014visits Solano\u2019s then-studio in Mexico City and glimpses her process in detail. We see the artist flip through work made before she lost her sight in 2014 as she traces her practice from art school to the present.<\/p>\n

Snowy scenes and portraits appear throughout the sketchbook and offer a visual throughline to her work today. Recent paintings like \u201cWalking on Water\u201d retain the vast landscapes of her earlier pieces as ripples pulse across the sea\u2019s surface. \u201cMe and my team are constantly figuring out the best way to paint textures or effects we haven\u2019t painted before. In that way, we are continually learning,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

Similarly, a collection of self-portraits presented in her solo show Egog\u00e9nsis<\/a>, held earlier this year in Madrid, reflects a complex evolution of identity through a variety of tender portraits. Gender is fluid in this body of work, and the connection between humans and nature is intrinsic, as parts of the environment seem to imprint themselves onto her figures. <\/p>\n

While Solano does pull from memory, she\u2019s quick to clarify that this process isn\u2019t unique to her practice. \u201cI\u2019ve heard that memories change every time we revisit them,\u201d she says. \u201cThis means everybody faces the problem of remembering things a different way than they actually look.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"a\u201cDinosaurio\u201d (2025), acrylic on canvas, 215 x 215 centimeters<\/p>\n

Having recently relocated to Berlin, Solano incorporates parts of her daily life into much of her practice, allowing her ongoing experiences and dreams to mix with imagery from the past and produce new compositions. She explains:<\/p>\n

Nowadays, I am making a lot of work about my current comings and goings, all of it things I obviously have never seen. I think there is a common misinterpretation that my work is perhaps about memory, that I am painting the things I saw. And this often comes with the rather ableist worry that someday I might run out of memories to paint. But this is not the case at all. I am originating new images and putting them in my work all the time.<\/p>\n

Solano is also a writer and often pens poems and stories to accompany her paintings. A recent piece, which she refers to as a manifesto, will accompany her new Blind Transgender and Wild series. If you\u2019re in Mexico City, you can see the artist\u2019s pop-culture works through January 4 at Museo Tamayo<\/a>, before the exhibition travels to CAAC Sevilla in 2026. Find more of her work on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"a\u201cCowboy\u201d (2025), acrylic on canvas, 215 x 215 centimeters<\/p>\n

\"the\u201cThe Childlike Empress\u201d in process<\/p>\n

\"a\u201cThe Childlike Empress\u201d (2024)<\/p>\n

\"a\u201cWalking on Water\u201d (2022)<\/p>\n

\"the\u201cFunctional Leather\u201d in process<\/p>\n

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