manna gallery presents

Manna Gallery presents Glass Half Full, a solo exhibition by Kim Cardoso. Rooted in personal history and shaped during a residency in Estonia, the work explores inherited trauma, memory, and resilience. Using wax and wire—materials both strong and flexible—Cardoso reflects on her grandmother’s escape from behind the Iron Curtain, her mother’s early years in a refugee camp, and the silences passed down through generations. Circular forms and repeated lines suggest containment and release, evoking the vessels we become for grief and survival. Despite themes of loss, the exhibition embraces possibility and gratitude. “My grandmother, despite all she lost, insisted the glass was half full,” Cardoso writes. This show is her way of honoring that paradox with tenderness and strength.

Kim Cardoso (she/her, b. 1969) is a visual artist based in Oakland, California. Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, she studied art and psychology at McDaniel College, with additional training at the Maryland Institute College of Art and School 33 Art Center. She began her career as a metalsmith in Baltimore before an unexpected calling led her west to become a midwife. After earning her MS in Nursing from the University of California, San Francisco, she founded a free women’s clinic and started a family. In 2013, Cardoso returned to art as a painter. Her work has been exhibited nationally, including at Garvey|Simon, New Art Center, Artlink, and the Crocker Art Museum. She paints at Norton Factory Studios, lives on an urban farm, and works part-time in community health.

www.kimcardosoart.com

insta @kimcardosoart