Anya McManis is a Colorado-based artist and explores how time, light, and memory shape our experience of place. She works mostly in acrylic on canvas or panel to create her contemporary abstract landscape paintings.

Her current series, Shaped by Time, grew from years of travel and close observation of the landscapes of the American West. Raised in Germany, McManis was captivated by the dramatic differences in terrain, light, color, and scale she encountered after moving to the United States. The layered rock formations, expansive horizons, and vast skies of the Southwest became an enduring source of inspiration, while her work has evolved toward a broader exploration of landscape, memory, and time.

McManis’s path to becoming an artist was not a linear one. Drawn to painting as a child, she went on to build a career in graphic design, web development, and marketing. A chance encounter with a painting in a Denver gallery in the early 2000s reignited her passion for fine art and she has been pursuing her professional art practice ever since.

McManis presented seven solo exhibitions at the University of Denver between 2011 and 2019 and has exhibited at Artwork Network Gallery and Niza Knoll Gallery in Denver’s Santa Fe Arts District. Her work has also appeared in group exhibitions including the Florence Biennale in Italy and the Niagara Falls History Museum in Canada. She received Best in Mixed Media at the Castle Rock Art Fest and continues to exhibit at juried art festivals. Her work is currently featured through Xanadu Studios at Xanadu Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona.