Manju Shandler

Manju Shandler is an internationally recognized artist who has been an active member of Arts Gowanus for the last 20 years. She currently has numerous pieces in Chelsea at L'Space Gallery in the exhibition Fibration III: Anxiety and Hope. For Open Studios she will be showing smaller framed work on canvas.

For this series I have created a cast of my own likeness. Rather than substituting a generalized female form to make sweeping proclamations about motherhood, I am making stories using myself as the protagonist. My training as a puppet builder informs my use of materials and approach to creating this series. The Chimera is a monster in Greek mythology composted of dispirit parts, but over time the meaning has evolved to become a thing that is desired but impossible to achieve. This series of mixed media paintings on canvas use imagery from Americana, the zodiac, and film stills as a stepping off place reflective of nature's wonder and the challenges of climate change, political corruption, and weight of history. This watery dystopia is rife with political symbolism and wistful magical realism. GESTURE is a memorial installation comprised of almost 3000 individual paintings, one for each person lost on September 11, 2001. THE COLONIZATION OF RED JUNGLE FOWL is an exhibition focused on chickens, eggs, and nests in relationship to colonialism, slavery, sexual politics, and the industrialization of natural resources. I am specifically interested in how our treatment and manipulation of this animal reveals parallels in the treatment of conquered populations and disregarded women.