Swiss born (and Mexico City based) painter, Noëmi Manser, is a conceptual artist and muralist, her work characterized by symbolic androgynous faces (connecting-brains), painted using both of her hands simultaneously - a technique claimed to have also been used by Renaissance genius, Leonardo Da Vinci.

Noemi turned to painting as a means of taking control of the ‘possessions’ and intensity of the auras she encountered. She credits painting as a tool that gives her access to a new dimension and a place to support her own healing. One of her works “Awakening” (recently exhibited at GR gallery in New York) exquisitely captures the symbol of an ‘eye’. Blinking eyes and blinding sensations are common symptoms of the epileptic condition, or as she sums up in the statement, “a feeling your eye is trapped in your face.” Eyes and other body parts often feature in her work.

Ancient alchemists believed that lead could be perfected into gold and essential elements transformed into superior forms. The end goal for this transformation was to offer a state of purification, completion and harmony. Noemi Manser follows a similar principle through her creative process. Transforming the canvas into forms such as objects, symbols and figures, (often manifestations of herself), she believes this process supports her own psychological transformation and spiritual development. Creatively reconstructing a blank canvas into forms such as objects, symbols and figures, often perceived as manifestations of herself, gives Manser an opportunity to create her own world. She credits discovering art as a means of supporting her own transformation and spiritual development.

"My process begins with stream-of-conscious drawing. Although I don’t preconceive a final image, I can later recognize how my intuition guides me towards symbols and figurative gestures that are ripe with potential meaning.

The subjects of my compositions are often avatars for myself. I construct my figures with a type of stylized shorthand similar to the portraits in my series of paintings called “connecting-brains.” However, these new surrealist compositions contain a sense of idealism informed by my recent experience living and working amongst Renaissance paintings in Florence. Around these points of self reflection, I use various forms of visual energy, like atmosphere, movement, and color to convey to the viewer an array of physical and mental states. I also frequently use symbols such as stripes, roses, and goldfish. The stripes relate to the energy one experiences while shifting into a liminal state — the strobing effect reminiscent of the seizures that I experienced in my younger years. The goldfish appeared as a symbol in my reflections of the separation and forced introspection that I experienced at the onset of the pandemic.

Through my practice, I strive to cultivate moments where my normal limits of self consciousness become relaxed. As I become more engaged physically, emotionally, and metaphorically in these dream states, I find that this vista of novel experiences reveals my own preferences, desires, and the root of my character."