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
My artistic development is closely linked to my interest in vernacular photography and turning an upstaged snap shot of modern life into a work of art, specifically the transition of the medium of photography into that of an oil painting. Hence the aesthetics of photography slips into the subject matter as much as what i decide to paint does - which is often of people in everyday urban situations. My subjects are often the incidental, mundane, and originate from happenstance. The theme of my work originates from the observation of human behavior through scenes and scenarios of everyday life. From these observations I create contemplative oil paintings which depict everyday scenes of people in the city to highlight the overlooked, understated, and fleeting moments in life. Through his work, I seek to imbue the everyday with a sense of beauty and grandeur. My paintings combine the tactility of oil paint with the unintended beauty of vernacular photography to create compositions with a sense of ambiguity and open narrative, inviting the viewer to question what they see or finish the narrative as it relates to their own experiences. Focusing on city life and the routine everyday accoutrements of our existence, I wish to convey the innate tension between togetherness and isolation in urban environments. Motifs and subjects such as shop windows, urban architecture, pedestrians, and people in museums appear as signifiers for the nature of contemporary life.
Using photographs that I take myself as the starting point for my paintings, I reinterpret scenes from the everyday through an emotional and psychological lens. I'm influenced by film, street photography and vernacular photography, and how I can blend the unique qualities of these mediums with the distinctive materiality and texture of oil paint. Recurring throughout my paintings are transitional urban spaces like sidewalks, streets, supermarkets, public transport, fast food restaurants, and sometimes spaces of reflection such as art galleries and museums. Moving beyond representation, I'm looking to make paintings which prompt reflection on the emotions and structures that lie beneath the surface of the cities we inhabit.
I make paintings about everyday life, but specifically the urban spaces we occupy and how we relate to each other within them. With my camera as my sketchbook, I like to look closely at the reality that surrounds us, and look for the allegory in scenes within our day to day existence. My paintings are based on impromptu snapshots of portraits of people in public spaces, seen in unguarded instances which harbor larger questions regarding identity, the public versus the private self, our everyday routines, and interrelationships. The "Passerby" has become a motif in many of my paintings. They are people in shared spaces like outdoor festivals, museums, public sidewalks, grocery stores, and cafes. Places where chance encounters, with the multitude of visual detail within them, come together for but one moment that is captured by my camera, never to be seen in that same way again. I play off this concept of ephemeral fleeting moments by freezing them within my paintings which take much longer to make and encourage the viewer to look carefully at a moment that may have lasted but for a second. They are often very familiar and unspectacular moments, which I then turn into an everlasting work of art. I depict people going about their daily lives not doing anything extra special and finding the beauty within these moments. The paintings reflect on the connections between people, and the ways we affect each other – knowingly and unknowingly, positively and negatively – when we gather together. As an artist, my work is a manifestation of my deep exploration into the human experience and the raw emotions that reside within us. My aim is to evoke a sense of connection and introspection for the other people we share this world with, inviting viewers to embark on a personal journey of self-discovery.
Another interest of mine that effects the way I paint as well as my subject matter is the ubiquity of photography, as it's so much a part of our life and how it influences the way that we see the world around us. Seeing things through the lens of the casual snapshot - directly inspire my paintings. Within my work, the line between chance and synchronicity merges, making us consider the idea of meaningful coincidences. My subject matter revolves around themes of daily life and familiar experiences such as city scenes, festivals, markets, trips to the museum, sporting events, a particular plant that I like, beaches, fairs, and most places where I get to observe people. Many of the people in my paintings are strangers to me, but they are strangers in very familiar everyday situations which I have a connection with.
In my series titled "People in the Street" I look at the vibrant energy of our cities, where the street reveals itself as a living theater in which each individual plays their role, often without even realizing it. In the midst of this place of circulation and meeting, a flow of anonymous people forms. The street is a common field that constantly evolves under the influence of Man. Everyone takes their place there in their own way, influenced by their environment, their rhythm, their relationship with others. It is a space of contrasts, shaped by the presences that overlap there. My goal in the paintings in this series is to have us take a look at moments in life, revealing the complexity and richness of our shared spaces.
I'm very much drawn to a crowd, and I love to capture people going about their business – from the hustle and bustle of city life to families crowded onto a sunny beach. These crowd paintings depict scenes of human flow, aiming to reflect on relationships with the urban environment. The people within cultural events or leisure activities such as fairs or festivals often catches my imagination and I can be found thick in the action taking photos as reference for future paintings. A theme that keeps resurging is group gatherings outside and I often look for places to photograph people spending time together, usually but not always outside, with others, suspended in the moment. These people are found attending a whimsical spectacle with strangers, or at a fair, or a market. Starting with a snapshot image of strangers or family - not a special image but just one that would normally get lost among the deluge of images we take with our cell phones - I look to reanimate it through the act of painting. Ultimately, I see herself as an observer of contemporary life and my interpretations of everyday scenes bring beauty to what might normally be missed, looking for moments which may seem simple yet are emotionally layered - serving as both documentation and reflection. Using mostly my own photographs as source material, these then get brought back into the studio where I will go through them looking for ideas which then get translated into the medium of oil paint. The composition, color palette, and overall aesthetic which I employ in my paintings, are closely connected to my interest in vernacular photography - where unposed subject matter and chance is more in line with my goal which is to be able to make work that is honest and that reflects real life. I'm captivated by the beauty and emotion I feel in that ephemeral moment I observed which may never exist in that exact way in life again - the light playing off someone's face or back, the colors in a flower as it's starting to bloom or decay, the way people are walking down a summer street, strangers passing each other but for a second. Sometimes I will layer these moments in order suggest how quickly these experiences may pass each other - how in a split second one instance can become or blend into another, which also closely reflects how images pass by my camera's view finder.
GALLERY REPRESENTATION
Elaine Fleck Gallery, Toronto
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
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