maria pestana art gallery online intends to provide a commercial launch of the art works of selected international artists. Our intention is to promote young artists and less well known artists who have been chosen for their technical skills, personality or creative imagination. Also among our compromises is to present the artist to international competitions and prizes.

We offer to collectors personal consultancy services to assist them in developing their collections according to their special interests or in exploring new branches of contemporary art to begin collecting. In addition we firmly believe in promoting the excitement, pleasure and fascination of collecting art to a new generation of collectors and thus we offer advice and guidance all aspects of how to start, build and develop an art collection.

Manuela Holban (USA)

manuela holban spanish interior There is a poignant quality in Manuela Holban's paintings (USA). From an almost blurred and unclear background, figures and motifs emerge as from a dream. The illusion of the past - or the tribute to the old masters, appears through a modern language of painting. The images seem to be just there momentarily, as they were needed to be seen by the viewer. Yet this illusion conjures up something fragile and remote. Because in this illusion that Holban transports us, everything will disappear again as the magic lantern fades, leaving for us a world of timeless shadows.

 

Manuela Holban (1951) is a full time artist. She lives in USA since 1987.

 

I have always been fascinated by the human figure as voyager and explorer of time and space. I see my work as a big unknown canvas. From time to time, images are brought to light as from a magic lantern. Some of the images are portraits of imaginary women, other are real: Danae, Marie Antoinette, Saskia, Velazquez’Menina, Salomea or the sinful and remorseful Maria Magdalena. In the lights and shadows of the paintings, the figures are coming and going populating corridors, empty spaces, parts of a labyrinth where they may get lost or maybe find Euridice. The back silhouettes invite silently the viewer to follow them in their voyage. The foreground is many times a chessboard and the silhouettes are like chess pieces, moved by an unseen hand. The figures which inhabit my paintings are navigating in the labyrinth of time and space. They are sequences of a never-ending story.” (2010, Manuela Holban)

 

Other works:

 

manuela holban portrait red
manuela holban portrait orange
manuela holban dutch portrait
manuela holban salomea
manuela holban mirror
manuela holban the wait

Portrait (Red) (2010), Oil on Panel, 30 x 22,5 cm.

 

Portrait (Orange) (2010), Mixed Media on Panel, 30 x 22,5 cm.

 

Dutch Portrait (2010), Oil on Panel, 30 x 22,5 cm.

 

Salomea (2010), Oil on Panel, 30 x 22,5 cm.

 

Mirror (2005), Oil on Canvas, 30 x 22,5 cm.

 

The Wait (2010), Mixed Media on Panel, 45 x 60 cm.

 

manuela holban shadow play
manuela holban flemish couple2
maribarbola
manuela holban the geographer
manuela holban hearing the song
manuela holban the voyage
Shadow Play (2010), Oil on Panel, 50 x 40 cm.
Flemish Couple (2) (2010), Mixed media on Panel, 30 x 22,5 cm.
Maribarbola (2010), Mixed Media on Paper and Panel, 30 x 22,5 cm.
The Geographer (2009), Oil on Panel, 30 x 30 cm.
Hearing The Song (2009), Oil on Panel, 45 x 60 cm.
The Voyage (2007), Oil on Canvas, 50 x 40 cm.

manuela holba

 

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