Vera Manzi-Schacht

Vera Manzi-Schacht is an active exhibiting sculptor/installation artist and art historian. Her artwork, The Memory Palace Chambers, influenced by the ancient Greek memory system, involves natural light, colored gels, video, sound, and life-sized terracotta figurative images. As holders of memory, archetypes, symbols, and personal myth, they become a means for remembering information and forging images. It is of great importance for her to convey her art experience, knowledge, and insights to New York Tech students.

Manzi-Schacht was awarded a 2015 National Endowment in the Arts Grant for her installation, Memory Palace Chamber: Liminality and Luminosity, at the Vanderbilt Mansion, Dowling College, N.Y. For the summer of 2016, she received an art residency at Il Palmerino, Fiesole, Florence, Italy, where she lectured on The Irish in Italy during the Middle Ages. Manzi-Schacht also had an exhibition of her artwork and video at the 2015 International Art and Psyche Conference in Siracusa, Sicily, where she also hosted a panel. She was a recipient of the Artists and Scholars Visiting Residency at the American Academy in Rome in 2014 where she exhibited a viewing of her video, “When the Stars Came Out in Pienza”. Manzi-Schacht was also honored to receive an Artists and Scholars Visiting Residency at the American Academy in Rome in 2009 to pursue her research on the medieval Irish in Italy.

Due to her medieval art history research, Manzi-Schacht's essay, pertaining to the Irish in Italy during the Middle Ages is pending publication.

Manzi-Schacht's commissions include work in Manhattan, Aruba, Chicago, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Manhattan. She has exhibited at the Denise Bibro Art Gallery, Chelsea NY, the Queens Museum, The Islip Art Museum, Montclair Art Museum, and Longwood Arts Center. Manzi-Schacht has studied sculpture and art history at FIT, Queens College, Hunter Graduate School, and The Circolo School, Pietrasanta, Italy. She is a board member in education of the Sculptors Guild in New York City.

Recent Projects/Research

Governors Island Exhibit: Sculptors Guild American Twist. May – September 2016 Where Did I Come From? Where Am I Going? 14"×16"×14" media: terracotta, wood.
Sculptural Interactions: Site-Specific Installation at Dowling College May – December 2015
Memory Palace Chamber: Luminosity and Liminality 11'×18'×18' media: natural light, terracotta figurative sculpture, colored gels, paper, wood portal, sculpted reliefs, oil crayon, monofilament.
Denise Bibro Fine Arts Gallery, New York City
Art From the Boros July – August, 2015 L'Annunciata Tempietto
Art History Research: Fiesole, Florence, and Rome, Italy – Summer 2016
NYIT Auditorium on Broadway, November 2012: Pentimenti: The Past Emerging—An Art Presentation Vera directed a performance of art, poetry, art history lecture and music. Included was the viewing of the video, The Memory Palace Chamber: When the Stars Came Out in Pienza, edited by New York Tech colleague, Paul Demonte.

Recent Projects/Research

Manzi-Schacht exhibited her terra-cotta sculpture, Liberata and The Muse on a Winged Ox, at the Denise Bibro Fine Arts Gallery, Chelsea, NYC. September - October, 2021
Manzi-Schacht exhibited her sculpture, L'Annunziata, in the CHRGallery - Church of the Heavenly Rest, 5th Avenue and 90th St. NYC. from January to April, 2020.
Manzi-Schacht exhibited her terracotta sculpture, Remembrance, at the Denise Bibro Fine Arts Gallery, Chelsea, NYC. January - February, 2020
Governors Island Exhibit: Sculptors Guild American Twist. May – September 2016 Where Did I Come From? Where Am I Going? 14"×16"×14" media: terracotta, wood.
Denise Bibro Fine Arts Gallery, New York City Art From the Boros July – August, 2015 L'Annunciata and Tempietto Seraph.
Art History Research: Fiesole, Florence, and Rome, Italy – Summer 2016
NYIT Auditorium on Broadway, November 2012: Pentimenti: The Past Emerging—An Art Presentation Vera directed a performance of art, poetry, art history lecture and music. Included was the viewing of the video, The Memory Palace Chamber: When the Stars Came Out in Pienza, edited by New York Tech colleague, Paul Demonte.

Publications

Vera Manzi-Schacht, Remembrance, 2014, terracotta, 19 x 18 x 15 in., collection of D'Achille-Rosone, Little Silver, NJ, published in Janetta Rebold Benton, How to Understand Art, ArtEssentials Series, Thames & Hudson, London, 94-95, ill. on page 94,forthcoming, September 2021. Translations of How to Understand Art are in German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Latvian.
Art and Psyche in Sicily, Layers and Liminality, L'Universalita dell'arte: tra prevenzione, educazione sanitaria e riabilitazione. September, 2015 p.128
The New York Times article by William Zimmer.
Creative Time: The Book, 33 Years of Public Art
Sveriges TV 1, Swedish television, ”Artists Today.“

Courses Taught at New York Tech

ARTS 201 Sculpture 1
ARTS 251 Sculpture 11
ARTH 101 Art History 1
ARTH 151 Art History 11
ARTH 201 Art History 111
ARTH 111 Introduction to the Arts
ARTW 101 Drawing 1
ARTD 103 Shape and Color
ARTD 102 Form and Space
ARTD 150 Color Theory 2 D Design
ARTD 102 3 D Design 1
ARTD 152 3 D Design 11

Professional Honors and Awards

National Endowment for the Arts Grant - Vanderbilt Mansion, Dowling College
Installation: Memory Palace Chamber/Liminality and Luminosity. Lectured on exhibit
American Academy in Rome, Italy. Visiting Artist and Scholar Residency Presentation Video: When the Stars Came Out in Pienza. 2014. Lectured on presentation.
Villa Palmerino, Fiesole, Italy. Artist in Residence. Lectured on exhibition and presentation of work
American Academy in Rome, Italy. Visiting Artist and Scholar Residency. 2009.
Installation: Memory Palace Chamber/Liminality and Luminosity
New York Foundation for the Arts Grant - The Arch at Grand Army Plaza
Installation: Violet Seraph 16’x10’x12’
Installation: Violet Seraph
PS 1 – Museum of Modern Art
Manzi-Schacht was an Artist in Residence for two years in this prestigious art center.
Creative Time at The US Custom House – Artist in Residence
Installation: Amber Seraph 35'x 20'x15’- site specific installation.
Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, St. Bonaventure University Olean, NY.
Montclair Art Museum Montclair, NJ.
Manzi-Schacht - One Person Exhibit. Installation: Seraph/Borromini 18’x20’x10’. Installed in the Montclair Museum of Art Rotunda Room. Received an honorarium and lectured on exhibit.
Queens Museum of Art - Juried Exhibit. Installation: Seraph/Rose Above 12’x4’x10’
Queensborough Community College – QCC Gallery. Artist in Residency. Esclarmonde.