Collection: LAUREN MANTECÓN - abstract paintings

LAUREN MANTECÓN is an American abstract painter and educator based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her work is characterized by its exploration of the “in-between places”—ephemeral, spiritual, and psychological spaces—using abstract forms and color to express boundaries, tension, and transcendence. MANTECÓN draws inspiration from dreams, psychic sensibilities, and the philosophies of 19th-century Romanticism and Transcendentalism, particularly their reverence for nature and spirituality.

She has been a professional artist for over three decades and is also a mentor and creative guide, offering workshops and individualized mentorships aimed at helping artists discover their unique voices and overcome creative blocks. Her teaching experience includes positions at the University of Portland and Portland State University, and she is recognized for her compassionate, intuitive approach to both art-making and teaching.

MANTECÓN is a first-generation Mexican American who moved frequently between the East and West Coasts during her upbringing. Her practice emphasizes self-reflection, personal insight, and the healing power of art, both for the artist and the wider world.

Her life-long studies of metaphysics, psycho-spirituality and fascination with the inexplicable mysteries of life currently inform her work. Symbols of veils, mists, orbs, black holes, sting-like pearls, abstracted landscapes, and ghost vessels are her leitmotifs.

MANTECÓN shares more about her work, "My work embodies a lifelong fascination with the inexplicable mysteries of life. Each painting elicits complex layered surfaces exploring a multitude of materials and paint in combination with the ephemeral subject matter.”