Press

LOS ANGELES, CA- Blue Roof Art welcomes Malak Manzour, a multidisciplinary artist from the village of Isfiya, Israel to Los Angeles for a two-month residency as part of its international exchange program in partnership with ARTIS. During her time in LA, Manzour will work in the studio while engaging the city through gallery visits, public conversations, and intimate events that foreground dialogue and process. The residency emphasizes development rather than production alone, offering space for sustained inquiry alongside meaningful connection with artists, writers, curators, and audiences.

Manzour’s practice moves between poetry and visual form, with text, sculpture, and installation operating as a single, fluid field. Her current work explores knowledge—how it is withheld, misdirected, or rendered inaccessible, particularly for women—and asks what it means to reclaim authorship over the self. Drawing on myth, ceremony, and collective memory, as well as the mystical dimensions of her Druze culture, she returns to recurring symbols such as the snake and the apple within her gestural, fraught compositions, sparking on figures of forbidden knowledge and ritual, and composes with blackout poetry, graphite, soldered metal, foil, and silvered surfaces that beckon even as they elude. 

Spiritual experience is not an aspect but a fundamental condition of Manzour’s methodology. Speaking about her process, she notes that language often feels insufficient, describing the work as a form of “talking with ancestors” Within the Druze tradition, she explains, one may remember a single, recent past life; for her, fragments of that reincarnational memory first surfaced in childhood and later returned through recurring dreams, which in turn became a catalyst for drawing and writing. “I wake up and sketch it right away,” she says, describing a practice shaped by dreams, reverie, and the ongoing effort to hold insight across time, breaking cycles of inherited limitation. During the residency, Manzour will continue developing this intertwined visual and poetic body of work, alongside shaping her first book of poetry, within a Los Angeles context that allows spiritual inquiry to be spoken aloud, tested, and shared.

UPCOMING EVENTS: 

Saturday, Feb 7 (3:00 PM – 5:00 PM): Open Studio & Closing Reception Celebrate the final day of SPECTRALS by Diane Briones Williams and go behind the scenes with Malak as she opens her studio to the public. View finished works and works-in-progress all in one evening.

Saturday, Feb 21 (3:00 PM – 5:00 PM): Artist Talk & Farewell Party Join us for a live conversation between Malak Manzour and Shana Nys Dambrot, as they discuss their inspirations and latest projects. Following the talk, we will host a farewell party to celebrate the conclusion of Malak’s residency.

About Shana Nys Dambrot 

Shana Nys Dambrot is an art critic, curator, and author based in Downtown LA. She is the writer and co-founder of 13ThingsLA—a weekly Substack of curated exhibition reviews and art event recommendations in Los Angeles. Formerly the Arts Editor at the L.A. Weekly, her work appears in the Village Voice, Flaunt, WhiteHot, Alta Journal, Music Connection, Palm Springs Life, and other culture publications. She studied Art History at Vassar College, curates and juries exhibitions, writes prolifically for catalogs and monographic publications, and speaks at galleries, schools, and cultural institutions nationally. She is the recipient of the Rabkin Art Writers Prize and the LA Press Club Critic of the Year award, and the Writer in Residence at DTLA kunsthalle Art/Space 114. Her oneiric novella Zen Psychosis (Griffith Moon) was published in 2020. Shana will serve as Malak’s art advocate throughout the duration of her residency.

About Blue Roof 

Founded in 2016 by artist Galia Linn, Blue Roof is a multidisciplinary art hub and 501(c)(3) non-profit located in South Los Angeles. Its mission is to provide women and women-identified artists with the space and financial resources to explore their creative practice in a safe, supportive environment. Through its residency programs the organization fosters community, mentorship, and meaningful art experiences that bridge cultural and social divides.

About ARTIS

Artis champions the diversity of art and artists emerging from Israel, a site of historical and ongoing cultural convergence at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe. Guided by the belief that artists deepen our understanding of identity, history, and lived realities, Artis fosters a global exchange of ideas that transcend borders.

Since its founding in 2004, Artis has remained artist-centric, adapting to the evolving needs of artists, curators, and the shifting global art ecology. The organization supports practitioners whose backgrounds intersect across religion, ethnicity, race, gender, and nationality, challenging fixed notions of identity and belonging. Over the years, Artis has realized programs and partnerships in more than 80 cities across six continents, building lasting networks and contributing to a global dialogue on art and culture. Entirely funded by the generosity of individuals and private foundations, the New York-based non-profit organization is grounded in values of openness, inclusivity, and creative freedom. artis.art