AbelArt SF

Abel Manalo is a San Francisco based Filipino American artist who creates multi-dimensional woven artworks. He expresses his creativity through painting by using mediums such as watercolor, oil, acrylic and mixed media. His inspirations come from portraiture, figurative and representational art. In his creative process, he paints two original pieces that complement each other, cut them into strips and meticulously weave them together into an entirely different work of art. By weaving the two paintings into one artwork, a dimensional texture is created. As he cuts and weaves both paintings together in different patterns, the resulting final image is always unexpected beyond his preconceived concept.

He was born in the Philippines and immigrated to the United States in the 1980’s. He started working during his teens to help his family settle comfortably in their new lives. He has thrived while overcoming obstacles and adversities to pursue his artistic passion. He started his artistic education in 1990 at a community college and pursued art full-time in 2016.

He maintains an art studio at San Francisco Hunters Point Shipyard and exhibited in several local galleries. He was featured at the first triennial ‘The de Young Open Exhibition 2020' and the second triennial 'The de Young Open 2023' at The de Young Museum, San Francisco. He was one of the ten featured artists and honorarium recipients of Mozaik Philanthropy Organization’s ‘Re-Imagining Democracy’ 2021 virtual exhibition currently online.