María Jesús Manzanares holds a degree in Fine Arts with a specialization in Painting from the University of Salamanca. She completed doctoral courses in the Department of Aesthetics at the Faculty of Philosophy at the Autonomous University of Madrid, where she also earned a Master’s degree in Aesthetics and Theory of the Arts. She currently teaches at the IES Sierra Santa Bárbara in Plasencia.

She grew up in a family environment that nurtured creativity. Alongside the love of knowledge and art instilled by her parents, she was also influenced by the women in her family, who practiced traditional crafts such as embroidery and weaving with wool, thread, or natural fibers like rye. Her mother taught her these skills, which she has incorporated into her creative work.

Her art seems to emerge from a passionate and delicate register of the emotional memory chest. Her pieces are inhabited by fragmented female figures that occupy space without touching it—figures that communicate with one another and form a woman without a name or era. She is drawn to what intertwines with life: chance, memory, and the ephemeral. Her work is the result of long-term research into materials and their many expressive possibilities.

In her textile work, she uses needle and thread to give shape to emotions, embroidering and transforming them into mended memories. She works with reused linen, tow, or cotton fabrics, composing each piece like an orchestra—where every crocheted motif, scrap of lace, patch, embroidery, or figure engages in a dialogue with one another and the viewer, seeking a harmonious and evocative space.

In addition to textiles, she also develops works on paper, which she turns into artist’s books—tools for research and content development for her paintings. She applies paint with both confidence and softness, giving the brushstroke and gesture paramount value. Her color palette is primal, shaped through blacks, reddish earth tones, and ochres.

Since the 1990s, she has taken part in dozens of exhibitions in Spain and Portugal, as well as other projects, such as her artist’s book Guardas, published in 2021. Her career has established her as one of the key figures in contemporary art in Extremadura.