Ilana Manolson: Of Root, Stem, and Leaf

Ilana Manolson: Of Root, Stem, and Leaf

A Critical Juncture of Return

Systems and Interpretive Interactions in New England Landscapes
November 22 – December 31, 2025 

Opening Reception: Saturday, November 22, 5-7 pm
Artist Talk: Sunday, November 23, 2 pm

Lucy Lacoste Gallery is delighted to present Of Root, Stem, and Leaf, Ilana Manolson’s triumphant return to printmaking. This new body of work marks a homecoming to the medium in which she began her artistic journey—now transformed by decades of painting, observation, and deep environmental engagement.

Manolson’s art has always been an act of attunement—to water’s reflections, to the hidden life of roots, to the unseen networks that sustain growth. Her work interprets the New England landscape not as scenery, but as a living system of exchange between earth, air, and the human hand.

In her earlier acrylic paintings on smooth Yupo surfaces, Manolson captured the fluid motion of unfolding stems, rushing rivers, and blooming petals. In these new prints, those same rhythms pulse through intricately cut stencils, painterly monotypes, and layers of Chine collé that evoke both sediment and sky. Each print builds organically, sheer color over sheer color, creating luminous shifts of hue like sunlight through leaves.

Manolson’s career has always moved like water—flowing from one form to another. She began as a printmaker, crafting Escher-like interiors and “unstill” lifes, which evolved into lush, close-cropped oil paintings and later her signature acrylic works. Of Root, Stem, and Leaf represents a return to her origins, but also a return to the earth itself—to the tactile, layered, and ecological processes that mirror nature’s own regeneration.

This bridge between painting and printmaking is beautifully embodied in Vernal Messenger, where printed stencils and brushwork intertwine—a deep red bush stretching into space, its branches printed, its foliage painted. The result is a rich, environmental surface where technique and ecology merge.

In Traces of Light and Leaf, ghostly stems drift between foreground and background, their energy fields rendered as “the aura of the plants,” in Manolson’s words. 

Green Immigrant, a glowing print shot through with nasturtium silhouettes, extends her meditation on nature’s cycles—growth, competition, renewal—and invites a parallel reflection on belonging and resilience, both botanical and human.

Manolson’s environmental sensitivity runs deep. Raised in Canada, she learned to read the landscape from pebble to peak, a fascination that led her to work as a naturalist for Parks Canada before earning her BFA in Printmaking from RISD. Her understanding of ecosystems—whether in a tide pool or a forest canopy—continues to guide her visual language today.

Over four decades, Manolson’s work has been exhibited internationally at Cadogan Gallery (London), Jason McCoy (New York), and Qualia Contemporary (Palo Alto), and is held in major collections including the RISD Museum, MFA Boston, Berkeley Art Museum, and the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo. A cofounder of Boston’s seminal Artist Proof print collective and a longtime educator at RISD, Manolson’s influence extends well beyond her own studio practice.

Lucy Lacoste Gallery is honored to debut Of Root, Stem, and Leaf—a body of work that celebrates regeneration, both artistic and ecological.

In Manolson’s own words, “I draw on my decades of scientific training alongside my artistic practice to make monoprints that speak to the entwined systems. These works translate the simultaneous power and fragility of the changing cycles of the natural world, building up surfaces to convey the spirit of place."

Of Root, Stem, and Leaf opens at Lucy Lacoste Gallery November 22, 2025, with a reception at 5:00 PM and is on view through December 31, 2025. The Artist Talk will be at the Gallery on November 23. This event is free and open to the public. Gallery hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 1–5 PM and by appointment.
 

For high-resolution images and press inquiries, please contact info@lucylacoste.com.