Ilse Ortiz de Manzanares

Nicaragua, 1941

Ilse Ortiz de Manzanares (Nicaragua, 1941) is a distinguished artist whose career has centered on exploring the poetic and symbolic potential of metals and geometric form. Over the course of several decades, she has developed a unique visual language that balances fragility and strength, solid material and spiritual resonance. Her work has been presented in more than sixty group exhibitions and fifteen solo shows, reflecting a long and consistent presence in the international art scene. She has received significant recognition, including First Prize at the Jubilee Exhibition of Columbus Day in 1975 organized by the Embassy of Spain and the Institute of Hispanic Culture in Nicaragua, a special distinction from the Latin American critic Marta Traba at the International Xerox Art Exhibition in 1977, and First Prize at the Exhibition of Women Artists in Taipei, China, in 1999. Her artistic exploration began with painting, particularly the series “Wounded Solids,” which depicted heavy metals as fractured and delicate, reflecting on the paradox of solidity and fragility and the transience of life. Later, sculpture became her primary medium, allowing her to develop a language rooted in sacred geometry, cosmology, and metaphysical symbolism. In these works, concepts such as the Vesica Piscis, Tesseract, Toroid, and Ollin—the Nahuatl symbol of movement and the Fifth Sun—appear repeatedly, linking her practice to both contemporary physics and pre-Hispanic tradition. Ortiz de Manzanares often describes her sculpture as “holographic art,” an art of rotation, multi-positional perception, and holomovement, where pieces can be viewed from multiple perspectives and reveal different facets of meaning depending on their orientation. Her sculptures also channel spirituality and cultural memory. Works such as “Masaya,” representing the Nicaraguan goddess of volcanoes, “Chalchigüegüe,” the Chorotegan Nahuatl goddess of terrestrial waters, and “Jacob’s Ladder,” referencing biblical symbolism, embody her synthesis of cultural heritage and metaphysical inquiry. Through her work, Ortiz de Manzanares seeks to reflect what she calls “the wonderfully patterned beauty of Creation,” inviting the viewer to contemplate the Universal Mind and the interconnectedness of existence. Today, Ilse Ortiz de Manzanares stands as one of the most important Latin American sculptors engaging with themes of geometry, spirituality, and transformation. Her body of work is a legacy that bridges Nicaraguan heritage with global artistic and philosophical currents, offering reflections on life’s impermanence, the enduring power of symbols, and the cosmic structures that underlie human experience.