Anya McManis
Aurora, CO
Anya McManis is an award winning artist. Through the interplay of various media, she creates abstract compositions that emerge from moments of spontaneity.
MessageAbstract painting allows Anya to express what can’t be captured in words—a sense of energy, emotion, and inner dialogue that unfolds through color, layers, and shapes. Formally trained as a graphic artist, she was craving a creative practice that wasn’t driven by outcomes, but by exploration and feeling. That journey led her to painting, where the process itself became a way to connect more deeply with herself and with others. Her background in design still informs how she approaches composition and balance, but in the studio, she allows her intuition to guide her. Each piece is a conversation—an invitation to pause, reflect, and discover something unexpected.
Anya McManis’s work has been shown in many professional galleries, including at the Artwork Network Gallery and Niza Knoll Gallery in Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe. She had seven solo shows at the University of Denver from 2011-2019 and participated in numerous group shows, among others at the Aurora Municipal Center, Aurora CO, the Tri-Lake Center for the Arts, Palmer Lake, CO, the R-Gallery, Boulder, CO, the WATER FOR LIFE International Art Exhibition at the Niagara Falls History Museum in Canada, and the Florence Biennale in Florence, Italy.
Statement
My art begins where words leave off. Painting gives me a way to process emotions, memories, and ideas that don’t always lend themselves to language. Through the interplay of ink, watercolor, and acrylics, I create abstract compositions that are rooted in both spontaneity and reflection. Each piece begins with an intuitive gesture—a bold sweep of ink, a delicate bloom of pigment—that often mirrors my internal state in that moment.
Layer by layer, I build the surface through transparent washes and intentional marks, letting earlier decisions resurface or dissolve. This layering reflects how we live—filtering, remembering, forgetting—shaping meaning from experience. I’m particularly drawn to the moments where different media interact. When layers of ink, watercolor, and acrylic bleed into each other, or when a semi-opaque layer of pigment creates unexpected windows to previous marks.
In the end, my goal is to create work that resonates on an emotional level—art that feels at once mysterious and familiar, deeply personal yet open enough for others to see themselves in it.
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