Solo Exhibition: In Holding

May 19 - 30

Grey Street Gallery, Queensland College of Art

In Holding brings together abstract paintings and hand-built ceramics that consider what remains in the aftermath of conflict. Drawing on lived experiences of civil war, displacement, and migration, and informed by her work in post-conflict settings, Ana Manzur-Allan approaches conflict not through direct depiction but through what can be felt, attending to what is carried in bodies, memory, gesture, and material form.

Across the exhibition, dissolving figures and vessel forms emerge and recede, evoking movement and passage. Layered surfaces, sustained touch, and shifting colour suggest experiences that cannot be fully shown or resolved. The ceramics are hand-built through repeated handling, their irregular forms shaped by touch, pressure, and weight. The works do not illustrate specific events; instead, they hold traces of what has been felt, inherited, and carried over time.

What emerges is not a single narrative, but a field of tension, presence, and trace. While the work acknowledges the weight of conflict, it also recognises the limits of fully knowing another’s experience. In this space, abstraction becomes a way of holding what remains.

Ana Manzur-Allan is a Brisbane-based artist currently completing her BVA at the Queensland College of Art and Design. Born in El Salvador during the civil war, her practice draws on this personal history alongside her professional work in international development and post-conflict settings. Manzur-Allan holds a Masters in International Development Policy and Peace and Conflict Studies from Duke University and is a recipient of the Rotary Peace Fellowship.

Curated by Emily Parker.