The practice of Los Angeles-based artist Dashiell Manley (b.1983; Fontana, California) is characterized by focused, repetitive, and often labor-intensive techniques and processes. Cultivating idiosyncratic techniques that are intertwined with East-Asian traditions of mindfulness, Manley manifests various psychological states throughout his work. Drawing on emotional responses to current events and 21st century socio-political realities, he painstakingly labors to build compositions in a process akin to Zen Buddhist practices.
Manley’s work is in the collections of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; the Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA; and the Pomona College Museum of Art, Claremont, CA. His work was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University in 2016, and in 2017, he presented a solo public art project with LAND, Los Angeles, CA. His work was featured in the 2014 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Variations: Conversations In and Around Abstract Painting at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; and Made in L.A. at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA. Manley received a BFA from the California Institute of the Arts and an MFA from the University of California; he lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.