IlanaManolson, IsandBecomingXIII, 2024,Acrylicon Yupo,12hx9win
CoverArtwork:CompositeofIlanaManolson,IsandOfIXandFrithBail,Largeblackoblong
PhotographybyIlanaManolson,FrithBail,andUlaGrabski
CataloguedesignedbyUlaGrabskiandSophiaMarsh
ILANA MANOLSON & FRITH BAIL
S i s t e r s , R o c k s a n d R o o t s
Lucy Lacoste Gallery is pleased to present Sisters, Rocks and Roots, with the painter Ilana Manolson and her ceramist sister Frith Bail on view December 7, 2024 through January 4, 2025. The exhibition, which blurs boundaries between humanity and nature, is our first with both artists. Shown in tandem, their work stands as a representation of what most inspires each artistically– a deep love of earth and nature. Manolson’s abstract paintings capture imaginative landscapes, while Bail’s ceramic work echoes such earthly essence in their likeness to the natural world around us.
Nature, as experienced in their youth exploring the beautiful landscapes of Canada, inspires both artists. Bail’s art is tactile in form, while Manolson’s is tactile in composition. Paired together, they evoke their playful spirit and strong connection to environment that both women hold deeply in their hearts and artistic practice. This exhibition conjures up memories of the seasonal beauties of nature. Bail’s vessels hold a simplicity in shape and form, while simultaneously conveying a deeper message of respect for the natural world. Manolson’s paintings capture a sense of happiness and, at the same time, a sense of darkness that suggests nothing in this world lasts forever...
As an artist, Manolson combines her two passions: the outdoors and art. She describes herself as “a painter, printmaker, and naturalist, weaving together environmental systems of earth, water, and life.” Seamlessly moving between the threshold of representation and abstraction, Manolson captures the soul of the great outdoors in a distinctive way. She works in reference to both the seen and the imagined. Her artistic practice is oriented to place and responsive to her environment, “Just as rivers flow into lakes and fires ravage forests, my work operates in both the additive and subtractive. I stack layers of paint and scrape into pools of color. In doing so, I document the growth and loss within a landscape.“ Her paintings encompass the birth of something new and the decline, a narrative we see constantly in nature.
Sinceheryouth,Bailhasfeltdrawnbyaspiritualconnectiontotheearthlyworldaroundherand states “Every time I work with clay, I listen to it. Clay has always told me what to do.” The languageofhersculpturerevealsitselfthroughtheseearthlyelementswithwhichshesoclosely resonates.
Like her sister, Bail is heavily inspired by her Canadian roots, especially her years growing up aroundtheLaurentianMountainsofQuebec.AtherstudiointhehillssouthofGeorgianBay,she harvests blue clay from the pond on her property and incorporates ash from her wood stove, allowinghertheopportunitytoexplorenewmethodsofglazinganddeepeningtheconnection of each piece to the landscape which inspired it. Bail’s ceramic vessels spark a quiet but powerful dialogue, between hand and soul, resulting in a “viscerally compelling celebration of spiritual transcendence through form and texture and color.” In Sisters, Rocks, and Roots, her workaptlyreflectstheessenceofthepre-CambrianrocksandborealforestsoftheLaurentians shesoloves.
Manolson and Bail were born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and moved to Montreal at a young age. Many weekends spent in the Laurentian Mountains, where the forests are thick, taught thesesisterstolookcloselyattheenvironmentandnatureever-presentaroundthem.Manolson studied botany at Dawson and Goddard Colleges and after a series of different occupations, such as working as a puppeteer and interpreter of nature, ultimately studied printmaking and paintingattheRhodeIsland
SchoolofDesign.Manolson’sworkhaslongbeenrepresentedbyJasonMcCoyGalleryinNYCas wellasQualiaContemporary,PaloAlto,CAandCadoganContemporaryLondonandhasbeen featuredinnumerousmuseumexhibitions.HerworkcanbefoundintheMuseumofFineArts Boston,theRISDMuseuminProvidence,RIandtheBerkeleyArtMuseuminCA,amongothers. BailreceivedaBAinFineArtsandEducationfromGoddardCollegeandthenwentontoreceive amaster’sinprofessionalstudiesinArtTherapyfromPrattInstitute.
Bail’s sculptural art has been shown in Boston, Quebec, Toronto, Collingwood, and Creemore. HerworkcanbefoundinprivatecollectionsinCanadaandtheUS Manolsonlivesandworksin Concord,MA.BaillivesandworksinCreemore,Ontario,Canada.
Ilana&Frith
Show Statement:
In Sisters, Rocks and Roots, the Manolson sisters painter Ilana and ceramist Frith present a compelling visual narrative that draws from a shared wellspring of formative landscapes. The exhibit invites us to consider not only the individual artist’s approach to nature but also the ways familial bonds and environmental continuity shape us and our artistic vision.
Ilana Manolson’s work has long been celebrated for its intricate layering and semiabstract interpretations of natural elements. Her background as a naturalist and her deep engagement with ecological themes manifests in paintings that are as much about nature’s cycles as they are about human connection to place. Manolson's brushwork achieves a rhythmic cadence, capturing the ebb and flow of life with a curator’s eye for both detail and abstraction. Her work speaks to an awareness of nature’s temporality, portraying the dynamism of growth and erosion. Critics have noted her ability to evoke a landscape’s spirit through gestural forms and nuanced tonal palettes, creating spaces that feel lived in and deeply personal.
In dialogue with Ilana’s paintings are the ceramic works of Frith Bail whose practice in clay conveys the materiality and texture of the landscapes they both hold dear. Frith’s pieces reflect organic shapes and textures that evoke the Laurentians’ rocky outcrops, winding roots, and layered forest floors. Her ceramics carry a tactile quality, allowing viewers to physically sense the rugged, undulating forms of the natural world. Through this medium, Frith explores the enduring strength and quiet resilience found in nature, bringing forth the grounded and graceful elemental power of earth, rock, and root.
This exhibition merges personal narrative with landscape tradition, offering a contemporary interpretation of nature that reflects shared experiences and familial memory.
Ilana Manolson
Is and Becoming X, 2024
Acrylic on Yupo
14h x 11w in
Small black round, 2024
Ceramic, black matte, ash, glaze 4.50h x 13w in
Frith Bail
Ilana Manolson Is and Becoming VI, 2024
Acrylic on Yupo
14h x 11w in
Ilana Manolson
Ellen's Peony, 2024
Acrylic on Yupo 14h x 11w in
Large black oblong, 2024
Ceramic, saw dust firing
9h x 20w in
Frith Bail
Ilana Manolson
Tiger Lily, 2024
Acrylic on Yupo
14h x 11w in
Large black oblong, 2024
Ceramic, black matte, ash, glaze
7h x 20w in
Frith Bail
Large black oblong, 2024
Ceramic, black matte, ash, glaze
7h x 20w in
Frith Bail
gray green round, 2024
Frith Bail
Medium
Ceramic, charcoal matte glaze
7h x 13w in
Ilana Manolson Metamorphosis, 2024
Acrylic on Yupo
14h x 11w in
Ilana Manolson Arena, 2024
Acrylic on Yupo 38h x 30w in
Large white round, 2024
Glazed white clay with copper edges 8h x 12w in
Frith Bail
Left Page (L to R)
Ilana Manolson
Subterranean Comings and Goings II, 2024
Acrylic on Yupo
80h x 32w in
Ilana Manolson
Subterranean Comings and Goings I, 2024
Acrylic on Yupo
80h x 32w in
Ilana Manolson
Between Below and Above, 2024
Acrylic on Yupo
78h x 40w in
Medium white round, 2024
Glazed white clay with copper edges
7h x 13w in
Frith Bail
14h
Ilana Manolson
Is and Becoming XI, 2024
Acrylic on Yupo
14h x 11w in
Ilana Manolson
Is and Becoming XII, 2024
Acrylic on Yupo
x 11w in
llana Manolson
Is and Becoming I, 2024
Acrylic on Yupo (framed) 53h x 38w in
Ilana Manolson Hunter, 2024
Acrylic on Yupo
60h x 24w in
Frith Bail
Small white round clay, 2024
Glazed white clay with copper edges
4.50h x 13w in
Frith Bail
Large white oblong, 2024
Glazed white clay with copper edges
5h x 20w in
Frith Bail
Large white oblong, 2024
Glazed white clay with copper edges
9h x 15w in
Frith Bail
Medium Brown Green Round, 2024
Ceramic 7h x 13w in
Frith Bail
Large Black, 2024
Ceramic 9h x 15w in
Ilana Manolson
Is and Of XI, 2024
Acrylic on Yupo
12h x 9w in
Ilana Manolson
Is and Of X, 2024
Acrylic on Yupo
12h x 9w in
FRITH BAIL
Frith has created in clay all her life in a continuing dialogue that always begins with listening. “Every time I work with clay I listen to it. Clay has always told me what to do.”
As a child growing up in the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec, she felt drawn by a spiritual connection to the natural world around her, which continues to this day. At her studio in the steeply rolling hills south of Georgian Bay, she harvests blue clay from the pond on her property, incorporates ash from her wood stove, exploring new glazes and deepening the connection of a piece to the landscape which inspired it.
The language of her sculpture reveals itself through these earthly elements with which she so closely resonates, a quiet but powerful dialogue, between hand and soul, that mirrors her own inner journey The result is a viscerally compelling celebration of spiritual transcendence through form and texture and colour
Her current show, Sisters, Rocks, and Roots, aptly reflects the essence of the pre-cambrian rocks and boreal forests of the Laurentians she so loves, figuratively capturing the soul that lies within its immutability and the song that plays within its light and shadow.
Frith’s sculptural art has been shown in Boston, Quebec, Toronto, Collingwood, and Creemore. Her work can be found in private collections in Canada and the US.
“When you live in the same land for a very long time it gets into your soul ”
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:
December 2024 Sisters, Rocks and Roots, with Frith Bail, Lucy Lacoste Gallery, Concord, MA
October 2023 Lagom Gallery ,Creemore Ontario
October 2018-2022 Purple Hills Studio Tours ,Creemore Ontario
October 2011 ScotiaBank Nuit Blanche Show
November 2010 “Naked Clay” Mad and Noisy Gallery, Creemore, Ontario
October 2010 ScotiaBank Nuit Blanche Show
October 2009 ScotiaBank Nuit Blanche
October 2008 ScotiaBank Nuit Blanche
July, August 2008 1001 Pots Show, Val David, Quebec
2006 Exhibitor at Mad and Noisy Gallery, Creemore, Ontario
March 29-April 9 2006 Beecroft Fine Arts,spring show at Womens Art Association of Canada, Toronto
2005 Juried show, Fusion’s Fireworks 2005 Exhibition (2 year traveling show)
2004“Celebrating Spirit,” Victoria Spa, Toronto
2004 Glad to Be Here” show, Gladstone Hotel, Toronto
2001-2003 Studio 503, Toronto
PUBLICATIONS:
November 2018. Creemore Echo
Autumn 2005 Fusion: Magazine for Clay and Glass,
October 2004 Fusion Newsletter, review of show, Celebrating Spirit
EDUCATION :
Goddard College, Plainfield, Vermont, 1975 -1979 B.A. in Fine Arts and Education
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, 1979- 1981
M.F.P. (Masters in Professional Studies in Art Therapy)
ILANA MANOLSON
“I am a painter, printmaker, and naturalist weaving together environmental systems of earth, water, and life. I move between the edge of representation and abstraction, capturing the essence of landscape in a mark. The paintings refer to both the seen and imagined; swaths of pure fluid color appear wave-like, close up, and then fall into perspective at a distance. I paint and edit simultaneously. This process mirrors the natural world. Just as rivers flow into lakes and fires ravage forests, my work operates in both the additive and subtractive. I stack layers of paint and scrape into pools of color. In doing so, I document the growth and loss within a landscape.
My practice is oriented to place and responsive to my environment. Growing up in the glacial mountains of Quebec I was intimate with the lakes, stones, and rivers. The boundaries blurred between human and nature; I knew every rock by name. Every painting is a story formed by a compilation of miles walked through the past and into the present. My paintings encompass something developing and something dying. This narrative is constant in nature and in my work. When I paint, I squint my eyes, looking for the minute that stands in for the monumental.”
Selected Solo Exhibitions
ILANA MANOLSON
The River Between, Brattleboro Museum, Brattleboro, VT. 2024.
Time: In The Mountains, Whyte Museum, Banff, Alberta, Canada. 2024. Things Far, Held Near, Qualia Contemporary Art, Palo Alto, CA. 2022. What We Choose, Jason McCoy Gallery, New York, NY. 2021.
Chance Encounters, Cadogan Contemporary Gallery, London, UK. 2019.
Sum Of, Jason McCoy Gallery, New York, NY. 2017.
Fragile Season Series, Mother Brook Art Center, Dedham MA. 2016.
The Fragile Season, de Menil Gallery of Groton School, Groton, MA. 2015. Flow, Clark Gallery, Lincoln MA. 2013.
Terra Flow, Installation for permanent exhibition, Johnston Lobby, Boston Public Library, Boston, MA. 2013. Fragile Navigations, Art Gallery at North Hill, Needham, MA. 2013.
Stasis/Flux, Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA. 2010.
Untitled, Jason McCoy Gallery, New York, NY. 2009.
Selected Group Exhibitions
Sisters, Rocks and Roots, with Frith Bail, Lucy Lacoste Gallery, Concord, MA. 2024
Tapped In, The Umbrella Arts Center, Concord, MA. 2024.
Exquisite River, Ely Center of Contemporary Art, New Haven, CT. 2024
All water has a perfect memory, Elizabeth River Project. 2023.
Rising Waters, The Studios of Key West. 2023.
Undercurrents, Concord Art, Concord, MA. 2022.
Think About Water, Interactive Virtual Reality Exhibition, Think About Water Ecological Artists Collective. 2021. Wet: Ilana Manolson and Joel Janowitz, North Hill Gallery, Needham, MA. 2019.
Gestural Hands, Nikola Rukaj Gallery, Toronto, Ontario. 2018. Power of the Flower, Concord Art, Concord MA. 2018.
Discomfort Food, The McIninch Art Gallery, Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, NH. 2015.
Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Ballycastle, Ireland. 2014.
Personal Terrain, Concord Art Association, Concord MA. 2014.
Larger Than the Sum of Its Parts, Wedeman Gallery, Lassell College, Newton MA. 2013.
International Women’s Art Exhibit, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. 1994.
Art in General, New York, NY. 1992.
black round, 2024
4.50h x 14w in
Frith Bail
Small
Frith Bail
Large black sculpture, 2024 9h x 15w in BACK COVER
Ilana Manolson
Is and Becoming VII, 2024
Acrylic on Yupo 14h x 11w in
