manuela benaim
Manuela is a sculptor and visual artist, born in 1996 in Caracas, Venezuela. She is currently living and working in Amsterdam.
Her multidisciplinary practice spans life-casting, sculpture, special effects, painting, and garment-making. In recent years, her work has evolved to include photography, video direction, and performance art — disciplines that interlace seamlessly with her sculptural foundation.
The central theme of Manuela’s work is the human body — both as a vessel and as a mystery. Her pieces unravel quiet truths about the majesty and enigma of embodied existence, exploring the tension between what we know and what lies beyond comprehension.
For Manuela, the body is a fragile membrane separating individuals, yet energized by a single, shared source. She draws upon both scientific precision and poetic insight — referencing calcium from ancient supernovas, rivers of iron and oxygen, skin as a luminous membrane, and the brain as a sentient root system — to depict the body as a miraculous vehicle for memory, personality, and intuition.
Her artistic terrain lies along the boundary between self-awareness and the unknowable; between physical form and soul, between synchronicity and causality. It is a narrow yet infinite line — one that divides life and afterlife, the temporary and the eternal. As a wanderer of this threshold, Manuela seeks out the nexus where these opposing realms intertwine.
CV
EXHIBITIONS
2023 Osmosis, Solo Exhibition, Door Foundation, Amsterdam, NE
2022 Proxima, Hacienda La Trinidad, Caracas, Venezuela
2022 La Casa de los Espíritus, by CostaIIa, Caracas, Venezuela
2022 Moda UCAB, Guest Speaker + Exhibition, Caracas, Venezuela
2022 GBG Arts, Caracas, Venezuela
2021 Interludio, GBG Arts, Caracas, Venezuela
2021 Luis Angel Duque, Galería Freites, Caracas, Venezuela
2020 Textile Art Exhibition, Daesan Art Museum, South Korea
2020 Stock, GBG Arts, Caracas, Venezuela
2019 Staarta, Group Show, New York City
2019 Returning, Frankfurt Lab, Germany
2019 Returning, Vitlycke, Center for Performing Arts, Sweden
2019 Surge Wearable Art, Solmssen Court, Philadelphia, PA
2019 Show of Hands, Solmssen Court, Philadelphia, PA
2019 Domestic Landscape, CraftNOW Philadelphia, PA
2019 The Philadelphia Furniture Show, The 23rd Street Armory, PA
2019 Artificial Nature, The Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, PA
2019 Art Unleashed, The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2019 Brick by Brick, Off the Wall Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2018 The Philadelphia Furniture Show, The 23rd Street Armory, Philadelphia, PA
2018 Next Generation Crafts, The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, PA
2017 Back to Nature, The Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, PA
2017 Chiaroscuro, Solmssen Court, Philadelphia, PA
2016 First Look, Gallery One, The University of the Arts, PA
2016 Summer Show, Gallery One, The University of the Arts, PA
AWARDS
Outstanding Student Award, The University of the Arts
Rosalie Borowsky Belkin Award in Fiber
Outstanding Student Award, Surface Design Association
Florence Whistler Fish, Honorary Mention
University of the Arts: Crafts and Material Studies Award
William Daley Fellow Award, Haystack School of Crafts
Surface Design Association Membership Award
Reconocimiento al Talento de las Artes, Centro de Artes Integradas