'Kim Manfredi: View with a Grain of Sand' [f2]

Laguna Art Museum has organized ‘Kim Manfredi: View with a Grain of Sand’ as part of its Art + Nature initiative. [f2] The exhibition runs from October 3, 2026, through January 18, 2027. [f1]

‘View with a Grain of Sand’ is an exhibition of paintings that explores perception, landscape and the human desire to impose meaning on the natural world. [f3] Its works draw from direct observation of elemental phenomena, transforming place into an abstract visual language. [f4]

Color is layered through drips, bleeds and oversprays, with the paintings evoking the vitality and unpredictability of nature. [f5] Fragmentation within the compositions reflects humanity’s imprint on the environment. [f5]

The exhibition’s title comes from Wisława Szymborska’s poem ‘View with a Grain of Sand,’ which reflects on human insignificance within a vast, objective universe and seeks to dissolve the illusion of separation between people and the world they inhabit. [f6]

Kim Manfredi is an American painter whose work moves fluidly between abstraction and representation, with material-forward paintings informed by art history, climate and place. [f8] She earned her BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1988 and returned to complete an MFA in painting in 2009, studying under Grace Hartigan and Joyce Kozloff. [f9] Manfredi will join curators Elizabeth Armstrong and Daniell Cornell for a conversation exploring the exhibition and discussing the ideas, materials and process behind the work. [f7]