manna gallery presents

Manna Gallery presents Champion, a solo exhibition by Oakland-based artist Sandra Wong Orloff, whose graphite and watercolor works reflect on what it means to witness the world as it unfolds. Responding to cultural and political moments that are often dismissed, distorted, or silenced, Wong Orloff’s art becomes an act of attention and truth-telling—a way of reclaiming focus and offering care to both her subjects and herself. Each figure, drawn from her own photographs or sourced from news media, is rendered with meticulous detail and placed in open space, then paired with abstract watercolor elements that invite ambiguity, tension, and reflection. Through this meditative process, Wong Orloff transforms observation into a deeply human record of resilience, identity, and connection.

Sandra Wong Orloff is a figurative artist working in graphite, ink, and watercolor whose work explores the act of witnessing—drawing from personal experience, shared photographs, and news imagery to reflect on presence in a moment. Blending detailed realism with intuitive abstraction, she creates emotionally resonant compositions as a quiet conversation between observation, emotion, and imagination. Holding a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from Mills College, she has exhibited widely, including in the inaugural Bay Area Now at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and has been awarded an Artist-In-Residence Grant from the San Francisco Arts Council. She co-founded the artist collective Ben Dunne Presents and is currently a partner at Manna Gallery in Oakland, where she continues to exhibit, collaborate, and support fellow artists.

website www.sandrawongorloff.com

IG @sandrawongorloff