Manuel Neri

(American, born 1930, died 2021)

Artist and teacher Manuel Neri (1930-2021) created life-size sculptures that explore the human figure. He was part of the Bay Area Figurative Movement of the 1950s and ’60s in San Francisco, California, who rejected Abstract Expressionism and returned to figure-focused art.

Neri was born and grew up in California. He served in the U.S. Army in the Korean War (1950-53) and used the G.I. Bill to study at the California School of Fine Arts but never completed a degree. Neri taught art at the University of California, Davis from 1965 until retiring in 1990.