"By wiping, sanding, swathing or washing out the details and features of a figure the viewer can trust that someone was there, and what remains is more of a ghost blowing in the wind."

Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your background? Where did you study?

I was raised between Alaska and Mexico by two art teachers who spent their lives fighting for arts education in public school programs. Art was a constant that permeated our home and lifestyle and has been the primary focus since my earliest memories. The love of art from an early age combined with being entrenched in unique landscapes was deeply formative in the way that I relate to scale, wind, and temperature in each work. I think of interacting with art as a visual ritual very akin to my relationship to nature. Occasionally, great art can give us a searing expansiveness that is similar to being at sea, or in the woods. Most of my training came from my parents, although I officially studied philosophy and visual art at Mount Holyoke College and then went on to get a masters from the New York Academy of Art.

Congratulations on your first exhibition in Switzerland with Pace Gallery. Your upcoming collaboration with Christopher Wheeldon for the New York City Ballet is certainly a major milestone in your career. How did this collaboration come about, and how has it influenced the paintings you are presenting in Geneva?

It is such a joy to be sharing this body of work in Geneva with Pace gallery, the works need to be seen in real life so it is incredible for a new audience to be able to interact with them in person. It has been a great pleasure preparing for both the Geneva exhibition and the ballet at the same time, anything coming out of the studio created side by side has a cross pollination. They are separate, yet intimately connected bodies of work. Chris and I were introduced by our good friend Tristan McAllister and had a great many shared artistic interests, it was a natural fit for a fruitful collaboration - he is remarkable to create with.

Your paintings are rooted in the sweeping landscapes of Alaska and Mexico, and your technique of layering countless layers of oil on the canvas surface in order to absorb and refract light is reminiscent of Old Master painters. How do you balance these traditional techniques with your contemporary feminist perspective, and how do you see your work contributing to the ongoing conversation around gender and art history?

I think these traditional techniques are only of interest through a new lens. If I was using that methodology to add to the extremely supplicated perspective and portrayal of women in art history it would be quite moot. It's a bit like armour, having a technical background so as to help the viewer have faith in what they are seeing, so that the thing they are seeing can hopefully reveal something new. Colour, composition, the posture of androgynous figures, all aid in our unconscious gender associations, even the vocabulary affiliated with work. I simply try to shake that up and see what remains.

Your paintings oscillate between abstraction and figuration, and pareidolia is a central concern in your approach to painting. How do you leave interpretation open for viewers, and what do you hope they take away from their engagement with your works?

These tendencies to perceive meaningful narratives from ambiguous visual patterns is at the heart of the very human and feminist goals in the work as well. By wiping, sanding, swathing or washing out the details and features of a figure the viewer can trust that someone was there, and what remains ​ is more of a ghost blowing in the wind. If I can create a clear time of day, the viewer will remember when they were in a similar memory and imprint who they believe fills the work and what their relationship is to the other figures. I'm opposed to indoctrinating the viewer with how they should interpret a work. My hope is that a deeply personal conversation will happen between the work and viewer - and that what those two whisper to one another is their own business.

Additionally, could you speak to the inspiration behind the title of the exhibition, "You Into Me, Me Into You"?

The title refers to a stanza in the Richard Dehmel poem that inspired Arnold Schoenberg's string sextet Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night). You Into Me, Me Into you speaks to the idea that in our interconnectedness lies the hope of metamorphosis. Which is a core goal in this body of work.

Tell us a bit about how you spend your day / studio routine? What is your studio like?

I’m usually in the studio 6 days a week from 12-10 pm, but if a work is really flowing, I’ll stay as late as necessary a few times a week. My studio has incredible natural light and I spend the bulk of the afternoon stretching and sizing linens while studying the works in progress as the light changes – mentally building up the momentum and decisions I believe are required for fresh marks. I’ll warm up with grinding some pigments, preparing colours, then really get cracking in the late afternoon/early evening.

What artwork have you seen recently that has resonated with you?

I was recently at the Geneva Museum of Art and History and stumbled across CARTE BLANCHE TO UGO RONDINONE, when the sun goes down and the moon comes up. The installation was radical in how it interpreted the space and its history, reverent yet bursting out of the confines of the museum - the effect was incredibly powerful and thoughtful.

Is there anything new and exciting in the pipeline you would like to tell us about?

I'm delighted to share that I'm a part of the Columbus Museum of Art's upcoming exhibition titled PRESENT '23 which opens June 8th. PRESENT '23 unveils the Scantland Art Foundation's second wave contributions to the Columbus Museum of Art’s permanent collection and the exhibition includes a remarkable group of artists that I can't wait to have my work in dialogue with.

Manning’s show “You Into Me, Me Into You” on view at Pace Gallery, Geneva Mar 28 – May 13, 2023

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All images are courtesy of the artist and Pace Gallery
Date of publication: 20/04/23