Inside the Studio by Ann Manuel

Inside the Studio takes us on a visual and tactile journey from the walls and drawers of her studio. Featuring the major thinking for series throughout her career, this exhibition includes major work, companion pieces, studies, final editions, stage proofs, and never-before-seen artwork. Inside the Studio is a meditation on the continuity of themes throughout our lives, our interaction with our surroundings, and the making holy of change. Manuel examines these themes in her exceptional etchings, oil paintings, drawings, pastels, monotypes, and monumental scroll installations. Discover how the intellectual heft combined with the tenderness for her subjects leaves the viewer with a deep sense of reverence for the world.

Our Sophie Thériault conducted a series of interviews with her, and below you can hear them discuss her work and themes in depth. To listen, simply click the link, and an audio file will begin playing in a new tab.

Listen to Ann discuss the early days of creating, her perspective on her career and having children, and one of her first series of girls clothing representing childhood.

Hear Ann discuss the move to her Sanctuary series, the printmaking process of her My Perfect Neighbourhood series, and her grand scrolls.

In 2024, she took part in a residency in Tilting, NL/Fogo Island. Lastly, she discusses creating against the odds, heritage homesteads, notes she would share with her ancestors about family secrets, and the outliers of her work.

Ann Manuel is an award winning artist, visual arts educator and arts advocate, and has worked for over 30 years in communities across North America, UK, Europe, Asia and the USA. Manuel has taught Visual Arts at all levels from high school to college and has served on the Boards of various arts organizations as well as with numerous committees in public galleries and artist run centres.

Manuel’s multimedia practice revolves around the themes of physical geography, relationships, identity and spirituality. Her printmaking practice has led to working in a variety of printmaking studios including The Edinburgh Print Makers Society, Scotland, Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok where she was an award winner in the Bangkok Printmaking Show, Malaspina Printmaking Studio in Vancouver, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Sunbury Shores Print Studio in St Andrews, N.B. Manuel has shown in solo and group exhibitions in Canada, Scotland, France, Italy, Brazil, Cuba, and Thailand and is represented in private and public collections around the world. Her work was recently included in the International Contemporary Art Show in Assisi, Italy. The recipient of numerous creation and professional development grants, Manuel is a recent winner of the Sheila Hugh MacKay Foundation’s Marie-Hélène Allain Fellowship. Established in 2014, this award is given to honour New Brunswick mid career artists who have distinguished themselves in the last ten years of professional practice and who have proposed a significant body of new work to be undertaken during the fellowship year.

Ann Manuel and collaborator Peter von Tiesenhausen were selected from a national public art call to create the feature artwork on the landing of the new Ron and Erma Hawkes Performing Art Centre in Fredericton, which is slated to open in spring 2027. To read the announcement, please click here. 

Ann Manuel holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Mount Allison University), a B.Ed (Queen’s University) and a MA (University of British Columbia). Manuel currently lives in Fredericton, N.B. where she maintains a full time studio practice.

To learn about the development of Ann's exhibition BREATH (which was shown at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in 2024), please watch this CBC interview and click on the written text here. 

Meet Ann Manuel as she is interviewed by Marie Maltais, the recently retired director of the University of New Brunswick's Art Centre on the occasion of Women's Day 2021: