Manuel Neri (American, b.1930) is a sculptor and painter. A member of the “second generation” of Bay Area Figurative artists, Neri was a prominent figure in the San Francisco art scene for many years, and also taught at the University of California and the California School of Fine Arts. He studied with other artists of the Bay Area Figurative movement, notably Richard Diebenkorn and Elmer Nelson Bischoff, and was influenced by these older artists, as well as by Abstract Expressionism. Neri is perhaps best known for his uniquely “painterly” approach to his life-size sculptures of people made in plaster, bronze, and marble, which are covered in brightly-colored marks and scratches. He worked with the same model for many years, Mary Julia Klimenko, who is the basis for many of his works.

Neri was married was to Joan Brown, another accomplished member of the Bay Area Figurative movement, from 1962–66. Together they had one child, Noel Neri. Manuel Neri went on to have three more children, several of whom became artists themselves, including Ruby Neri, who is a noted ceramicist and sculptor.

Neri is the recipient of numerous honors and awards for his work, including the Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, and a Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the International Sculpture Center in 2006. His work is included in numerous public collections, such as the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Seattle Art Museum, and the San Francisco Art Museum, among many others.

The artist retired from teaching in 1990, and has since lived in the San Francisco Bay Area while also maintaining a studio in Carrara, Italy.