Sofia Basto Riousse paints, embroiders, and illustrates, sometimes all at once. Swapping her law practice for a practice in the arts, her work comes to life from the Dubai nook that she has baptized Manigua Studio. Manigua, alluding to her native Colombia’s muddy and entangled landscapes, is the living-and-breathing project through which Sofia blends with greenery and people-watches between the Magdalena River, France, Singapore, and the Gulf. Once a muralist and calligraphy aficionada, today Sofia (and Manigua) creates with nature as her most reliable resource, be it for pigments, compositions, or to accommodate a nostalgia nestled between the Andes mountains and the Amazon. 

Sofia Basto Riousse has exhibited in Dubai, Pitalito, Ras Al Khaimah, Madrid, Luxembourg and online. Her daily coffee is black, and her gardens always colorful.