Manuel Solano (1987, Mexico City) grew up in Satélite –in the metropolitan area of Mexico City– surrounded by icons of the Mexican metropolis and pop images, in a tacit quest to find elements that would showcase her own subjectivity. Throughout her life, she has worked with installation, video, and painting. Her artistic practice has always been intertwined with autobiographical experiences in which the characters and spaces reflect her interests, longings, and insecurities. At the age of 26, she lost her sight because of a series of medical negligence in her HIV treatment. An irreparable artistic urgency led the artist to develop a method that allowed her to paint again —unable to see the result and letting go of the perfectionism that characterized her to explore color and figuration as a challenging exercise. Working with her fingers, memories, and conversations that ignite the details that inhabit memory, Solano creates paintings that transcend the image and delve into the intimacy of identity politics.

Manuel Solano studied visual arts at the National School of Painting, Sculpture, and Printmaking La Esmeralda, in Mexico City. Her work is part of the permanent collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, and has been exhibited in cities such as London, São Paulo, Miami, Mexico City, and Seoul, among many others.

Among her recent solo exhibitions are Pijama, Peres Projects, Seoul, KO (2023); Ancestry, Carlos/Ishikawa, London, UK (2022); The Top of Each Ripple, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, UK (2022); I Still Look Like A Model, Carlos/Ishikawa, London, UK (2022); Manuel Solano: Jacuzzi, Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon, PT (2021); Heliplaza, curated by João Mourão and Luís Silva, Pivô, São Paulo, BR (2021); Portraits, Peres Projects, Berlin, DE (2018); I Don’t Wanna Wait For Our Lives To Be Over, curated by Alex Gartenfeld, Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA Miami), Miami, USA (2018); Oronda, Open Forum, Berlin, DE (2018); PUNCHIS PUNCHIS PUNCHIS PUM PUM PUNCHIS PUNCHIS PUNCHIS, Carrillo Gil Art Museum, Mexico City, MX (2016); Inherent Vice | Manuel Solano, Karen Huber Gallery, Mexico City MX (2015).

She has participated in various group exhibitions, the most recent being Soft Touch, Sultana Summer Set, Arles, FR (2023); An AIDS Walkthrough, curated by Eric Lerouge and Samuel Perea Diaz, we are village, Berlin, DE (2023); Futurismo, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo, BR (2022); Every Moment Counts – AIDS and its Feelings, Henie Onstad Art Center, Høvikodden, NO (2022); Seized by the Left Hand, curated by Eoin Dara and Kim McAleese, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, UK (2022); City Prince/sses, curated by Hugo Vitrani, Palais de Tokyo, Paris FR (2019); Visual AIDS, PARTICIPANT INC, New York, USA (2019).

The artist lives and works in Berlin, Germany.