SANDRA MANZI
BIO
Sandra Manzi was born and raised in Toronto and started her artistic journey in high school in the art program at Central Technical School. She then went on to study and graduate from the Ontario College of Art (now OCADU) in Toronto where she received her diploma in Fine Arts/Experimental Arts, and afterward received a B.A. in Fine Arts from the University of Guelph. Fresh out of University she started working at the prestigious Carmen Lamanna Gallery from 1989 - 1991 before starting to work at the Art Gallery of Ontario, where she worked for 30 years. During this time she was showing her paintings in various galleries in and around Toronto. In 2022 she moved to Hamilton and now paints full time in her home studio. She is a recipient of grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council, and has been a finalist for the Boynes Artist Award three times. Her work is represented by galleries in Toronto, Oakville, Hamilton, and San Francisco. Her paintings can be found in private collections throughout Canada, Europe, and the United States.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I create paintings that capture fleeting moments of everyday life with an emotional resonance. I'm interested in painting real people in real spaces, and transforming these moments into figurative, painterly compositions. Building upon these snapshots of daily life, my goal is to capture everyday life with a focus on intimacy, emotional resonance, and human connection. I paint the everyday, often starting from an observed moment from either my immediate environment or my travels, with an eye on looking for meaning where you wouldn't think there is any. Once back in my studio ideas develop while sorting through and recomposing these images, creating a scene that is part fiction and part reality. The subjects in my paintings are largely unposed, caught off-guard, and implying action on either side of the frozen moment. This is my way of trying to grasp the reality of our experiences and interrelationships. My subjects are both of people close to me and anonymous figures, and I seek to explore the interaction between individuals and their urban environment. Thus, I wish to offer a personal and poetic vision of the urban theater, at once raw, rugged, vibrant, and open to an infinite possibility of interpretation. With a focus on the concept of time, I use painting to document the present and to comment on contemporary life in order to display its permanence. My perspective and manner of framing allow for me to present ideas of stillness and suspension of time. Through these concepts, I wish to encourage the viewer to recognize the beauty in the mundane events of everyday life. I have always been interested in vernacular photography and often use the aesthetics of this way of seeing the world as inspiration for my paintings. The moments captured in these images resonate with me, with their suggestion of untold stories and unexpected compositions. For my reference material I use my own camera (often taken with my smart phone), as an amateur photographer would, and not of anything particularly special. I take them spontaneously, typically depicting the everyday, are non-artistic, capturing ordinary life, family moments, and personal experiences. These snapshot images are characterized by their casual nature and raw, authentic, and captured purely by accident. The appeal I find in them is that they serve as cultural, social, and personal records of a particular moment of a lived experience.
I source my scenes from a massive archive of my own photographs. My process begins with snapshots that I take during wandering around in my city and in my travels, used as a basis for my photo-realistic paintings. But although they're based on direct observation they speak to the nature of reproduction itself. The invention of photography dramatically expanded the possibilities available to me, and as some painters prefer to eliminate the signs of the original photographic image as a visual aid or to simply use it as a template before a more painterly approach, I prefer to celebrate them: in fact, my subject matter not only lies in paintings of people or scenes that I create with the help of photographs, but the photographs themselves in conjunction with what I choose to paint that form the subject matter. Over the years I have used different types of cameras, from low-resolution mobile phones to high-end roll film cameras, and their was not one I preferred over the other. They all interested me in the qualities unique to each as far as the image goes because I never really aim to capture a perfect moment or to produce a technically flawless photograph. Imperfect, often blurred, sometimes overexposed or underexposed images present a much more interesting challenge to my technical skills. When looking for subject to paint, the strength and authenticity of the photograph lies not only in the accuracy of its reproduction, but also in its nonchalance, this is what inspires me to want to paint it.
In another series, I start to experiment with other ways of visual storytelling. I'm interested in looking at the role that images play in the story that we tell ourselves about ourselves. Here I create work which seeks to explore how identity is not necessarily as fixed or culturally singular as one might think. In these paintings I integrate a myriad of art historical, filmic and personal references extracted from my daily life. Where spatial and temporal elements become co-opted to create a metaphysical site of accumulation. Stylistically, I wish to maintain the technical skill and precision of Realism, yet deployed against illusionistic instability. Some elements of the image are often semi-transparent, elongated, enlarged, or awkwardly positioned within space. Perspective is constructed only to be subtly undermined. The use of grayscale alongside colour creates a visual hierarchy of presence: some figures feel immediate and embodied, while others read as archival, ghostly, or imaginary. This creates a painting which begins to mirror reality before opening again into ambiguity.
Through my work, my goal is to capture the very essence of urban life, in all its complexity and beauty. Working in series, my creative process involves an interplay between drawing from sources such as my own photography as well as found imagery. Through this process I wish to reflect on the nuanced reflections on daily life, offering diverse perspectives on the human experience. I create paintings inspired by photographs capturing how people live, relax, shop, and move through public space; allowing me to observe human behavior. Rather than producing idealized images, I prefer to focus on what I observe around me with an eye on the patterns, contradictions and absurdities of everyday life. Painting allows me to express what is around us everyday but often missed because of its familiarity, while also trying to make the complexity of human encounters visible. Most of my life I've lived in a big urban city environment where crowds and the fast pace, routine, and our connection and disconnection, has become fertile ground for contemplation for my paintings. The images that develop create a desire to give them a new life through the tactile quality of oil paint, where I get to experience them again. Sourcing my imagery from an archive of personal smartphone snapshots which I organize into separate folders based on events I have experienced, themes develop which become the groundwork for various series such as people walking to work, and tourists in museums. I would characterize these paintings as a blend of simply observational and critical in tone, as they are unidealized images of our modern consumerist society, highlighting the leisure pursuits of the Western world.
My work is concerned with capturing split-second moments, a fleeting experience or memory, with figures often in motion or caught at just that second before movement. I try to create the souvenir of a sensation – a suggestion that sparks a flicker of nostalgia in the viewer and a potential narrative to think of. I enjoy giving a photographic sensibility to my work, hoping to further the sense of snapshot of a forgotten experience. I like to experiment with that moment where the elements of a photograph and the tactile quality of paint come together to create another unique realty. My themes, meanwhile, are observations provided by the society in which we live. I see myself as sort of a modern day Flaneur, as my paintings are often the result of my love for wandering through our urban landscape. I'm mainly drawn to depicting the candid movement and expressions of people I see in the city, but my subject matter has evolved to purely visual interests involving light and color and the texture of paint itself.
During the pandemic, I think the thing we all missed most was the often shared collective experience that make up our day to day lives. Things like going into the city where the hustle and bustle of people going places - shopping, traveling to work or home, meeting friends, visiting galleries, or going to an outdoor festival, had suddenly ceased. I'm glad this is past us because I draw inspiration from the people I meet, narratives within street scenes, work environments, and local social gatherings. I am inspired by watching people. Storytelling and context is very important to me whether creating observational portraits, or larger paintings with figures and strong narratives. I look for intrigue in everyday situations and I love to capture the candid character of people.
In my current body of work I create paintings which invite the viewer to weave stories around people captured unawares, going about their daily lives. They are inspired by the photographs I take of street scenes which are full of activity. I paint in an expressively realistic style, and like the French Impressionists, I often crop my paintings in surprising ways, giving them a sense of randomness. These people are brought together by circumstance rather than by intention, and within seconds they will move apart again. Something I focus on is observing people in a busy urban context, and how each individual can be lost in his or her own thoughts. Sometimes portrait paintings develop from these same observations. They are not studio portraits, and the titles I give them suggest they are not posing for their likenesses. They are people that I have observed sitting in coffee shops, passersby walking in the streets, waiting in an airport, or browsing in a shop. In these paintings, by isolating them from their context, I'm forcing the viewer to imagine their inner lives. What are they thinking about? Can their expressions or body language give us an insight into their emotional state? Despite the bustle that might be going on around them, they are alone. The goal here is to make thought provoking paintings which ask us to consider the contradictions at the heart of our modern urban existence.
GALLERY REPRESENTATION
Art Gallery of Ontario, Art Rental and Sales Gallery, Toronto
Art Interiors, Toronto
Christopher Clark Fine Art, San Francisco, California
Noma Gallery, Collingwood, Ontario
Crown and Press Gallery, Hamilton, Ontario
Summer and Grace Gallery, Oakville, Ontario
Lost In Composition, Seattle, Washington
EXHIBITIONS
2025 - Summer and Grace Gallery, Two Person Show, Oct. 9-26, 2025
2025 - 'The Power of She', Group Show, Summer and Grace Gallery, May 1-June 15, 2025
2025 - Elaine Fleck Gallery, Two Person Show, April 1-30, 2025
2024 - Elaine Fleck Gallery, Christmas Show, Dec. 2024
2024 - Elaine Fleck Gallery, Summer Group Show, August 2024
2024 - Summer and Grace Gallery, A Beautiful Life: Still Life Exhibition, May 30 - July 14, 2024
2024 - Elaine Fleck Gallery, Two Person Show, April 6-30, 2024
2024 - Crown and Press Gallery, February 3 - 21, 2024
2023 - Elaine Fleck Gallery, Toronto, Group Show, December 2023
2023 - Centre3 Gallery, Hamilton, Ont., Solo Show, Nov. 3 - 28, 2023
2023 - Elaine Fleck Gallery, Three Person Show, Oct. 4-28, 2023
2023 - Elaine Fleck Gallery, Group Show, Sept. 7-30, 2023
2023 - Crown and Press Gallery, Hamilton, Ontario
2023 - Paula While Diamond Gallery, "Big Idea Show", July - August 2023
2023 - Square Foot Show - Florals, Online show, May 4 - 6, 2023
2023 - Art Gallery of Hamilton Annual Art Sale, Hamilton, Ont., April 27 - 30, 2023
2023 - Dundas Valley School of Art 52nd Annual Auction, Hamilton, Ont., April 10 - 15, 2023
2023 - Ironwood Cider House, Gallery, Solo Show, Niagara on The Lake, Ont., April 15 - May 4, 20
2023 - Summer and Grace Gallery, "Joy" Exhibit, Dec. 1, 2022 - Feb. 27, 2023
2022 - Paula White Diamond Gallery, "Square Foot Show", Nov. 26 - Dec. 4, 2022, Waterloo, Ont.
2022 - Paula White Diamond Gallery, "Big Ideas Show", Oct. 27 - Nov. 12, 2022, Waterloo, Ont.
2022 - Art Gallery of Mississauga, Second Annual Juried Show, Sept.13 - Oct. 23, 20
2022 - Summer And Grace Gallery, Oakville, Ontario
2022 - 2023 - Art Gallery of Hamilton, Art Rental And Sales Gallery, Hamilton, Ontario
2022 - Earls Court Gallery, "Bouquet", April 7 - May 7, 2022, Hamilton, Ontario
2021 - 2023 - Art Gallery of Ontario, Art Rental And Sales Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
2021 - Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, July 2-11., Toronto, Ontario
2010 - George Brown College Gallery, Three Person Show, Toronto, Ontario
1998 - 2007 - Gallery Moos, Toronto, Group Shows, Toronto, Ontario
2008 - Fran Hill Gallery – “The Portrait Challenge”, Group Show, Toronto, Ontario
2004 - The Burston Gallery, “Crooked Grind”, Solo Show, Toronto, Ontario
2002 - Luft Gallery, “Hockey Card Portraits”, Solo Show, Toronto, Ontario
1998 - West Wing Art Space, “Fleeting Moments”, Solo Show, Toronto, Ontario
GRANTS AND AWARDS
2024 - Boynes Artist Award, 11th Edition Finalist
2022 - Boynes Artist Award, 7th Edition Finalist.
2022 - Boynes Artist Award, 6th Edition Finalist.
2021 - Ontario Arts Council, Exhibition Assistance Grant
2003 -Toronto Arts Council, Exhibition Assistance Grant
2002 - Canada Council for the Arts Grant
2002 - Ontario Arts Council Grant
EDUCATION
1988 - B.A., Fine Arts, University of Guelph
1987 - A.O.C.A., Fine Arts/Experimental Arts, Ontario College of Art and Design
1984 - C.T.S.A.D., Fine Arts, Central Technical School, Department of Fine Arts, Toronto
PRESS
https://italocanadese.org/2025/11/17/the-life-and-art-of-sandra-manzi/
Youtube Interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9KCgditLoM
Boynes Artist Award, 11th Edition Finalist -
"We are delighted to showcase Vintage by Sandra Manzi, a Finalist in the Boynes Artist Award 11th Edition! Description: Inspired by the works of Old Masters, Sandra’s 'Vintage' recontextualizes James Tissot’s painting 'Croquet', blending elements of art history with contemporary figures. As a figurative artist, Sandra captures fleeting human moments that spark bigger questions about identity and what it means to be human. This dialogue between past and present, tradition and technology, creates a timeless and thought-provoking narrative."
https://boynesartistaward.com/interviews/artist-sandra-manzi
https://boynesartistaward.com/interviews/artist-sandra-manzi-updated