For me, collage is a way of gathering the scattered fragments of life and memory.
In this body of work, I explore how memories—especially those born of migration, longing, and unspoken love
My portraits and self-portraits are explorations of the human face
 Jila MannaniMy work moves through layers of memory, emotion, and time , from abstraction to collage, from love to irony. Each series speaks a different dialect of the same inner language: the language of presence and absence, of what remains after love, loss, or laughter. In my abstracts, color becomes breath , a meditation on the invisible. In collages, torn papers remember what paint forgets , fragments of home, belonging, and displacement finding new form. In How to Love, tenderness and pain intertwine; it is not a guide, but a confession , of what it means to remain open when everything asks you to close. And in the Pink Panther series, irony meets affection; the soft pink becomes both mask and mirror, revealing the fragile courage of being human. Across all of them, I explore how memory inhabits the body ,how we carry our stories in texture, color, and the quiet space between gestures. Perhaps every painting is a question disguised as a form, a way to ask again and again: If love and memory are what keep us human, what happens when both begin to fade? New interview with New England Experimental Art Group Interview by Michele Bushar Read the full conversation: https://www.newenglandexperimentalartgroup.com/blog © 2026 -
