Javier Manrique's (b. 1958, Tijuana, Mexico) most recent work centers on abstract landscapes, where space is stripped of its representational qualities and all its visual components are synthesized into fields of color. Representation becomes secondary, even superfluous. The compositional and chromatic richness - or simplicity - comes first and manifests in the artist's most intimate perception of things. His abstract landscapes symbolize a territory but it is a non-specific, non-identifiable one. Geography is materialized in these paintings but the landscapes also evoke immaterial places and the invisibility of emotions. Manrique works in a variety of art forms including fresco, painting, photography and printmaking. He has participated in biennials and individual and group exhibitions in Mexico and the United States. He began studying art in Humboldt County, California then moved to Mexico to learn printmaking at the National School of Painting, Sculpture and Printmaking (ENPEG), La Esmeralda, in Mexico City. He later earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the San Francisco Art Institute. Manrique has taught the Complete Fresco Course at the San Francisco Art Institute and California College for the Arts. Manrique lives and works in San Francisco, California.