05 Mar Artist Spotlights: Alexandra Manukyan, The Tender Vigil

Alexandra Manukyan’s latest body of work is a surrealist exploration of femininity, mythology, and fashion. Born and raised in Armenia, she studied there at the Fine Art College and the State Pedagogical University before immigrating to the United States where she has made her home in Los Angeles since 1990. Manukyan pursued a career in fashion and graphic design for two decades before finally returning to painting. In her studio, all of her past experiences come to play in paintings that feel like fairy tales where hidden meanings reveal themselves like breadcrumbs left for us to follow.

We sat down with Manukyan to learn more about these mesmerizing paintings and what inspires her.

WA&A: In your new body of work, the figures feel like unique stories or metaphors. What was your guiding principle for these latest works?

Alexandra Manukyan: Thank you, that means so much to me. In this series, which I think of as The Tender Vigil, I was drawn to moments where time seems to soften and slow. I’m interested in quiet guardianship, the kind that doesn’t declare itself loudly but exists as a steady, luminous presence.

Pale Sanctuary | Oil on Belgian Linen | 18 x 24 inches

Porcelain light, lace, feathers, and winter air are not decorative elements; they are emotional textures. The figures inhabit a space between stillness and becoming. They do not seek to dominate their surroundings; they hold them gently and their silence is not emptiness; it is attention. These works form a kind of sanctuary, a place where beauty stands watch over what is fragile but enduring.

WA&A: Birds often factor into your work. Do they hold symbolic meaning?

A.M.: Birds have long felt like natural companions to my figures. I don’t approach them as literal symbols so much as presences. They carry an intuitive sensitivity and an awareness of thresholds.

In these paintings, they act almost as emissaries between interior and exterior worlds, guarding memory. Their presence suggests that the figures are never isolated. There is something profoundly tender about a bird’s attention. That quality mirrors the inward listening I try to evoke in the figures themselves.

Featherlight Sovereign | Oil on Belgian Linen | 14 x 18 inches

WA&A: There is an old-world, timeless quality to your work. Where does that influence come from?

A.M.: I was academically trained beginning at 11, and continued through art academy, college, and university. My education was deeply rooted in classical drawing, painting, and art history. Those years shaped my visual language profoundly. Studying the masters taught me not only technique but reverence for craft, patience, structure, and light. I think the timeless quality comes from that foundation. It is important to me that the surface carries the memory of tradition, even as the narrative moves forward.

WA&A: Tell us about the models you work with. Do they inspire your paintings?

A.M.: My two daughters-in-law are frequent collaborators, and I also work with actors, dancers, and professional models. Each brings something entirely unique — a different energy, posture, or emotional vocabulary.

The photo shoots are deeply creative experiences. They are not simply reference sessions; they are exploratory spaces. We experiment with gesture, fabric, lighting, and mood. Often the final painting evolves far beyond the photograph. Sometimes I adjust features or alter expressions to align with the emotional architecture of the piece. The photograph is a starting point. The painting becomes its own world.

Cathedral of Winged Whispers | Oil on Linen | 14 x 18 inches

WA&A: Would you tell us more about the costumes your models are wearing?

A.M.: My background in fashion informs my sensitivity to structure, proportion, and material articulation. In this particular series, many of the garments and objects evolved through the act of painting itself. I am also interested in how materials associated with fragility can carry ritual or contemplative presence.

Painting lace, porcelain, pearls, and feathers presents both technical and conceptual challenges. The execution requires a deliberate, layered process in oil to build translucency without rigidity, luminosity without opacity. In many ways, painting these elements becomes an inquiry into restraint: how to honor detail while preserving breath and atmosphere.

Alexandra Manukyan’s exhibit, The Tender Vigil, can be seen at Abend Gallery, Denver, CO, April 3-26.

Ann Glaser is a Colorado art advisor and writer focusing on contemporary artists of the American West.