Opening reception: Tuesday, February 17, 2026 | 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
On view: February 18 – March 14, 2026 | Weekdays 10am–4pm, Weekends 2–4pm
Visits available by appointment: contact merica.may@graymatters.work
Location: Studio 9BC, 616 East 9th St, New York, NY 10009 (map)
Please join us for RU resident artist Beatriz Manteigas’ first solo exhibition in New York City – I FIND THAT VERY ODD – presented at Studio 9BC, curated by LinYee Yuan.
As Félix Guattari argued in the 1980s, ecology can only be truly considered when environmental, social, and mental dimensions are addressed together. Aligned with this thinking, the exhibition brings together three series by Beatriz Manteigas. They showcase distinct aesthetic approaches and narrative points of departure, yet all revolve around a sense of the uncanny in today’s state of art.
“Greenwashing” (2025) presents a drawing of a garden, another iteration of the work that following the title is now wrapped in green cellophane; a series of porcelain works (2026), composed of texts readable only through shadows, invites the viewer for a dialogue, yet obstructs it from understanding; “After the Storm” (2016–2026) revisits small oil paintings of clouds, which Manteigas started to paint ten years ago in Myanmar while reading George Orwell (who served as a British officer in former Burma) and reflecting on the shifting dynamics of politics, power and the human toll of war.
Beatriz Manteigas often simultaneously works on multiple series to reference that art unfolds through processes rather than solely aiming at results. This also resonates with Guattari’s vision that one cannot afford to relax: one must continue improving through intersecting approaches and constantly revisiting through the courage to recognize one’s limits and differences, and through the creativity to transform them into new possibilities – always in relation to specific contexts, both within us and around us, from which there is no escape.
One may feel adrift against the tides of techno-feudalism and anthropocentrism while navigating a very fragile boat. Even so, as this exhibition seeks to suggest, it is still possible to navigate if we remain attentive to the wind, care for the vessel’s wood, build the best oars for the length of our arms, and listen carefully to where the storm is coming from – without doubting the way.
About:
Beatriz Manteigas is a visual artist whose work moves between drawing, interdisciplinary approaches, and research-based practices. Manteigas’ body of work consists of compositions inspired by cultural, social, and ecological issues. To achieve this, she employs representative elements that interact with each other and the viewer in choreographed organizations. This creative process seeks associations, confrontations, mistranslations, and errors that highlight what may seem different from the objective while allowing for plural interpretations. The content of these works can revolve around any theme and is rooted in human intersubjectivity—a desire for understanding and solidarity—which they aim to celebrate by emphasizing and assuming what happens during the creative process: accidents that reference time, space, and change—unreproducible, unrepeatable, and uncontrollable. Yet, because they are anchored in representation, these elements are interpreted as such, becoming metaphors for what is and isn’t intelligible, and merging both for consideration. She is currently a Professor of Drawing at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon, where she earned a PhD in Drawing in 2022. In 2016, she co-founded Associação Quinta das Relvas, an ecological farm and cultural association where she lives and works, and became a collaborating researcher at CIEBA.
LinYee Yuan is an educator, editor, and cultural organizer living on the unceded land of Brooklyn in Lenapehoking. She is the founder and principal instigator of Field Meridians, an artist collective creating tools for ecological resilience through social practice. Her practice is rooted in conspiring with human and more-than-human neighbors to build relational architectures for liberation. She is currently an adjunct professor at Parsons, The New School and was previously the founder and editor of MOLD (thisismold.com), a critically acclaimed print and online magazine about designing the future of food, editorial director of Emerson Collective, entrepreneur in residence for QZ.com and an editor for Core77, T: The New York Times Style Magazine and Theme magazine.
Beatriz Manteigas’ residency is made possible with support from FLAD – Luso-American Development Foundation, CABE 184/Arte em Acção Lda, and Associação Quinta das Relvas.
