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Sonja Holzwarth Maneri (b.1937) is a prolific artist who has won numerous top prizes and has had a long string of one-woman shows and commissions during her extended career as an artist and teacher. Her works are in collections throughout the U.S. and abroad. Sonja was born and raised in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. In 1956 she received a three year scholarship to attend The Brooklyn Museum Art School; studying two and three dimensional design, drawing, painting, sculpture and print making. Other studies included an apprenticeship with Hans Hoffmann in Provincetown, Ma. and a scholarship to study at The Museum of Modern Art in New York under Samuel Weiner from 1962-1965. Her teachers have also included; Yonia Fain, Rubin Tem and Louis Grebenek. In 1961 and 1962 she received honorable mention from The New York City Center and in 1963 The Brooklyn Museum awarded her first prize, the Anco Award, for her work. Sonja produced her first solo show in 1965 at St. Mark's Evangelical Church in Brooklyn, NY. In addition she worked as an art and occupational therapist at Creedmore Hospital in Orangeburg, NY. Since 1970 Sonja has lived in Massachusetts and has produced over 30 solo shows at galleries, libraries, universities and churches including Harvard University, The Danforth Museum, St. Stephens Priory, and The New England Conservatory of Music. She was awarded The Katherine Ames Memorial Award by the Framingham Art Guild in 1986, 1993 and 1994 and has been awarded numerous first prizes by Premier Image Gallery, The Framingham Library and from Massachusetts Bay Community College's Juliani Gallery. In addition she has participated in group shows throughout New England and New York; in Illinois at The Billy Graham Center and at Concordia University in Austin TX. She has given lectures on contemporary art and the process of creating at Framingham State College, The Framingham Art Guild, Peace Lutheran Church, and at The Center for the Arts in Natick. She has taught art to both children and adults and has been on the faculty at Massachusetts Bay Community College. From 1980-1990 she taught art at St. Bridget Parochial School grades K-8 and completed an art curriculum book for elementary and secondary grades entitled "Rainbow on a Shoe String".
Mrs. Holzwarth Maneri has written a number of books which pair her art with her own poetry and prose. They are published by the Boston Microtonal Society and include; "Wordless Presence", "Trees: The Vine and it's Branches", "My Thoughts: in Visual language" and the children's book; "Things are not always as they appear". Most recently Sonja has opened The Holzwarth Gallery in Framingham, Ma. as a place to show her colleagues work as well as her own and to give lectures on contemporary art and the creative process. |
