SANDRA MANZI
BIO
Sandra Manzi is a contemporary painter from Toronto, currently residing in Hamilton. Working primarily in oil, her work blends traditional and contemporary aesthetics - merging classic techniques with new ideas. She produces photo-realistic work sourced from imagery from her own surroundings with that from art history, popular culture and cinema, creating a signature artistic style that recontextualizes scenes from the past to tell new stories about the present. She is a graduate from the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCADU) where she received her diploma in Fine Arts/Experimental Arts, and also received a B.A. in Fine Arts from the University of Guelph. Sandra has exhibited in galleries in and around Toronto and Hamilton. She is a recipient of grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council, and she is a two time finalist for the Boynes Emerging Artist Award. Her paintings can be found in private collections throughout Canada, Europe and the United States.
ARTIST STATEMENT
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I make figurative paintings which represent urban life. I walk around the city looking for the spontaneous energy of street life to photograph as source material - from the hustle and bustle of the rush hour commute, to street festivals, fairs, outdoor patios, and street vendors. The natural rhythm of the people walking through the city translates to a lot of movement across each canvas, interrupted by chance encounters that I choose to focus on - targeting the unexpected moments, rather then censoring them. This way strangers have integrated their way into the composition, exemplifying the true character of city life in their actions. I'm particularly interested in candid unconventional moments of beauty in city dwellers that are not really worthy of a painting, but which suggest in this candid imagery a narrative that is invigorated with honesty. The locations and things that inspire me are everything from fairs and street festivals, to subway stations, and street and store signage. Anywhere where I can experience people connecting - whether with strangers or people in their life, while moving through the city.
In a current series I blend these paintings with different time periods, gestural moments, and scenes from Old Master paintings - looking for small similarities and differences which speak of larger questions. In these works I'm creating paintings inspired by the Old Masters, with imagery and composition that is in direct contrast to the traditional tropes seen in Old Master paintings. The candid everyday moment which would have not been considered worthy of being used for a painting during Renaissance. I Use photo editing software to overlay these historical paintings with contemporary images until I find a powerful composition that bridges our concerns of being human today with ones we had in our past. Blending an Old Master painting with a current moment which I've experienced in my immediate surroundings to spark dialogue between past and present, tradition and technology, fact and fiction. I believe the intentional clash of formats can evoke questions about the evolution of art and the impact of technology, while exploring questions regarding our relationship to our past. I employ a process where I layer images, similar to the way a film editor uses a technique called the cross dissolve. Conceptually, transitioning from one scene to another and blending two scenes together convey a passage of time, character movement, and storylines. It's often used to signal to the audience that they are entering a new scene and that time has passed, blending together two moments so they feel conceptually linked, in spite of the audience jumping through time and space. I utilize this technique in my paintings in order to generate ideas about the human condition, and to stir our subconscious. I see myself as a film director, composing narratives from unrelated source images in order to develop a mysterious dramatic scene. In a way I'm searching for “actors” either in photos I've taken, found photographs, film stills, or in old master paintings. Inspired by their body language, I invent stories with open narratives. They are layered paintings which play with space and temporal moments, fact and fiction; creating semi-transparent imagery which creates multiple narratives. I work in series to explore ideas that have to do with memory, nostalgia, the subconscious, as well as ideas of time and place. My inspiration comes from many sources - from my personal photographs of daily life, to art history, film, and literature.
Realism is what guides my work, but it's usually mediated in some way by technology or by some unnatural method of human intervention. I concentrate on pictorial spaces that are composed from various sources, with the purpose to trigger the imagination in both myself and the viewer. When I first started painting, photography was the technological gadget of the day which I used in my work. Now there is so much more in the digital era which influences my process - hence, I like to think that I make work that is a metaphor for the times we live in. I like pulling elements from one medium -like in film or photography, and using that effect in another medium like painting. I use this process to create my narratives, to trigger the subconscious and memories in the viewer, to bring images from different time periods together, and to explore the differences as well as the relationships between these mediums.
My process involves layering images by incorporating art historical techniques with technology. They encompass elements of multiple realities sourced through a combination of real lived experiences, images from the internet, and images from art history. Through this, a blending of visual information referencing different technological devices occurs, creating a hybrid which contain elements from each - suggesting how we may be at a crossroads in a time where the boundaries of fact and fiction and the real and the imagined, are fading. I like to look for images that speak of the fragility of existence and of everything that is ephemeral and fleeting. These are things that resonate with me on a subconscious level, and I am particularly interested in the possibilities - both visually and conceptually, in the associations between images.
In recent paintings I reference the different genres from the canon of art history - layering and combining images from art history with scenes of moments in daily life as I experience it in the present. I do this because I believe that although centuries may pass, human nature is routinely recycled. As an art history buff, I learned many things by seeing the parallel between art with culture and human nature. Through a blend of different periods and styles, I wish to get the viewer to reflect on the present in relation to our past. This series started as I was asking myself the questions of how do I make work that has value in this time in our lives right now, what is the work that I can make that has some meaning and can make some contribution to the very long conversation of art history as it relates to the human experience? My intention is to make us think about how people and our day to day lives may be similar or different from the way it was many years ago, and how artists have chosen to depict these events through the centuries. I'm also interested in how technology has mediated these experiences. If it is different, in what way? If it is the same, how and why might it be similar? I like to think that time has changed many things, but our emotions and what it means to be human has not changed. I capitalize on the intersection between traditional subjects such as portraiture, florals, and other genre's within the canon of art history, with the more mundane and non traditional imagery from our daily lives. Hints of certain art historical periods and movements such as 17th century Baroque art, Impressionism, and Surrealism get blended with digital applications to create a natural continuum of these movements that are constantly shifting as our realities change with technology.
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C.V.
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GALLERY REPRESENTATION
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Elaine Fleck Gallery, Toronto
Art Interiors, Toronto
Art Gallery of Ontario, Art Rental and Sales Gallery, Toronto
Crown and Press Gallery, Hamilton
Summer and Grace Gallery, Oakville
Art Gallery of Hamilton, Art Rental and Sales Gallery, Hamilton
Lush and Found, Toronto
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UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
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2024 - Elaine Fleck Gallery, Two Person Show, April 2024
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PAST EXHIBITIONS
2024 - Crown and Press Gallery, February 3 - 21, 2024
2023 - Elaine Fleck Gallery, Toronto, Group Show, December 2023
2023 - Centre3 Gallery, Hamilton, Ont., Two person 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, 2023
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 of Visual Arts, Sept.13 - Oct. 23, 2022
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
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GRANTS AND AWARDS
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2022 - Boynes Emerging Artist Award, 7th Edition Finalist.
2022 - Boynes Emerging 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
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EDUCATION
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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
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PRESS
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https://boynesartistaward.com/interviews/artist-sandra-manzi
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https://boynesartistaward.com/interviews/artist-sandra-manzi-updated
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