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Birth
Neri was born in Sanger, California, to immigrant parents who had fled Mexico during political unrest following the Mexican Revolution. -
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Manuel Neri
<a href='' >http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhIWF5axhs8</a> -
San Francisco College-Learned Ceramics
He began attending college at San Francisco City College in 1950, initially studying to be an electrical engineer. After taking a class in ceramics, he was inspired to become an artist. -
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California College of the Arts
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California School of Fine Arts
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Bruce Conner
In 1959, Neri became an original member of Bruce Conner's Rat Bastard Protective Association. Bruce Conner (November 18, 1933 – July 7, 2008) was an American artist renowned for his work in assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography, among other disciplines. -
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Love
Neri was married to Bay Area Figurative painter Joan Brown from 1962–1966. (Their relationship and artistic collaboration date back several years prior to this, however.) Three of his children, Noel Neri, Ruby Neri, and Julia Leonard are also artists. Ruby Neri is noted for her graffiti work (under the name "Reminisce") and as part of the first generation of Mission School artists.[2] [3] Neri currently resides in an old church converted to residential living in Benicia, California. -
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UC Davis
Neri taught sculpture and ceramics at California School of Fine Arts from 1959–1965 and was on the faculty of the University of California, Davis from 1965-1999. -
Muse
Neri is known primarily for his life-size figurative sculptures in plaster, bronze, and marble, as well as for his association with the Bay Area Figurative movement during the 1950s and 1960s. Since 1972, Neri has worked with the same model, Mary Julia, creating drawings and plaster figures that merge contemporary sculptural concerns with classical forms. The anatomical skill of these works recalls the sculptures and drawings of Rodin, Giacometti and Degas. The fragile nature of his plaster scul -
Gallery
Manuel Neri 'New Sculpture and Drawings' Robischon Gallery (Denver, Colorado, USA) -
Sculptor Award
In 2006, Neri was a recipient of the International Sculpture Center's Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award. -
Method in Movement
The power of the figure – the good ones have always been able to evoke emotion by gesture and posturing. Think of the significance of one raised shoulder, a tilted head or hands behind the back in Rodin’s Lovers. Or in his more famous piece, The Kiss, focus on the desire in her wanting embrace and his strong, yet succumbing advance. There’s a depth in these sculptures that absolutely needs to be explored. -
Neris Vision
Manuel Neri’s world has always been visual. A dyslexic, he recently wrote in a note to Mary Julia, “I am in a room abandoned by language.” So he invented his own world through art – an evolutionary process that’s now consumed 57 years of his life.
