Manny Blair
BA Fine Art 1994
Manny Blair was born in 1971 in the northwest coastal resort of Blackpool, UK. He grew up in a house full of books which instilled an early appreciation of creative thinking.
After school he attended Blackpool and the Fylde College studying art and design. He acknowledges this, with hindsight, as the most important part of his art education. It was his painting instructor, Norman Travis, who recommended broadening his painting experiences under the tutelage of Stass Paraskos at Cyprus College of Art and so he enrolled at Cyprus College of Art, where he exhibited in a private gallery for the first time, receiving a favourable critique of his work in a national newspaper. It was in Cyprus that Manny was first made aware of the work of Euan Uglow, who was the first 'Artist in Residence' at the college a few years earlier.
On his return to the UK, he embarked on his Fine Art degree at the University of Sunderland where he studied alongside Turner Prize nominated artist, Richard Billingham. Not having banished his wonderlust, Manny took advantage of an international student exchange program and spent his second year at East Carolina University, in the States.
Asked about his best memory from his time at the University of Sunderland, Manny replied: "My overarching memory of my time at Sunderland was rigour. The lecturers in the Fine Art department were always encouraging students to push boundaries in their work, but would expect the students to have a solid, defendable rationale why they were heading in their chosen direction. This philosophical component has stayed with me in my professional life and helped me present and defend ideas, plans and concepts to various audiences."
Manny returned to his studies at Manchester Metropolitan University in the Landscape Architecture program. Immediately after obtaining his Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree, he decided to combine his art and design degrees with a Masters degree in Public Art. It was here he studied under Jason Minsky who taught him a level of professionalism and rigour in artistic practice that he had not previously experienced. Manny owes Jason a huge debt of gratitude.
New opportunities presented themselves in 2008 when he received a job offer in Calgary, Canada. Six months apart from his wife and two young sons enabled tentative roots to be put down in Alberta.
Having proudly become a Canadian citizen in 2014, Manny has spent his time establishing himself in the Canadian art scene. These years have been spent building a portfolio of new work, and co-founding Art Calgary, Calgary's first contemporary visual art fair.
In 2022, Manny moved to Nova Scotia's South Shore where he continues to work. In December 2022, Manny became a National Gallery of Canada Board of Trustees member.
Manny's creative influences are many and somewhat disjointed. They include art world behemoths such as Francisco Goya, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Bacon, Clyfford Still, Constant Nieuwenhuys, Grayson Perry and Julie Mehretu; Architects, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Rudolf Schindler, Erno Goldfinger and Richard Neutra; designers Dieter Rams & Thomas Heatherwick. Manny is also a student of Stoic Philosophy.
Text source: https://www.mannyblair.com/