Sanja Manakoski is a figurative artist and educator originally from Belgrade, Serbia, currently based in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. Her work is rooted in a lifelong fascination with the human figure, drawing, movement, and visual storytelling.

Sanja holds a degree in Costume and Fashion Design from the University of Applied Arts in Belgrade and a Master of Fine Arts from Northwestern University. Her background spans fine art, theatre, costume and fashion design, bringing an interdisciplinary approach to both her studio practice and teaching.

Her work has been exhibited and recognized internationally. Sanja received the Michael Merritt Award for professional theatre design and was featured by American Theatre Magazine in its “6 Theatre Workers You Should Know” series. Her costume and fashion work has received recognition including an ULUPUDS Design Award and has been presented at the Prague Quadrennial. She was also a co-creator of the award-winning fashion label KLASA.

Alongside her studio practice, Sanja has taught drawing and design at the university level, including undergraduate and graduate students at Northwestern University. She is also the founder of My Art Academia, an online art school through which thousands of young artists have studied drawing.

Today, her practice centers increasingly on figurative drawing and painting, with a particular interest in how observation, form, movement, and individual character can be expressed through the human figure. Through her teaching and her own work, she approaches drawing not simply as a way to reproduce an image, but as a way of learning to see.