"There is a devastating beauty to Rebecca Manson 's sculptures of butterfly and moth wings. Plucked from some non-extant body of an insect, they show signs of tattering and decay but retain their mesmeric splendor with kaleidoscopic patterns and highly intricate construction. The New York-born and -based artist has had a stellar few years. In late 2023 and early 2024, she was included in a major group exhibition at Ballroom Marfa,"
"quickly followed by a solo show at London's Josh Lilley, " Leave Love Behind." In May of 2024, she opened " Barbecue," her first institutional exhibition, which debuted at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and subsequently travelled to the Arsenal Contemporary Art, Montreal. Now, Manson is the subject of yet another solo, " Rebecca Manson: Time, You Must Be Laughing," at Jessica Silverman in San Francisco."
"The title of the exhibition was drawn from the lyrics of the 1975 Joni Mitchell song "Sweet Bird," which was playing as Manson considered names for the show. In a video call, Manson said that while she doesn't listen to Mitchell regularly, she felt herself gravitating toward the singer-songwriter's work when brainstorming "because such a huge underlying theme of what she so beautifully covers is the phenomena of time and aging and change, and those are important themes in my work.""
Rebecca Manson sculpts butterfly and moth wings in ceramics that display tattering and decay while preserving kaleidoscopic patterning and meticulous construction. She is New York–born and based and has shown work in major group and solo exhibitions, including Ballroom Marfa, Josh Lilley in London, and the institutional debut Barbecue at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, later shown in Montreal. The solo exhibition Time, You Must Be Laughing opened at Jessica Silverman in San Francisco. The title draws on Joni Mitchell's "Sweet Bird" and signals recurring themes of time, aging, and change. Manson trained at RISD (BFA, 2011) and forms works from hundreds of small hand-formed "smushes."
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