Like the oeuvre of Jasper Johns and many other American painters, Manes' work sets recognizable images from the world around us within a conceptualized framework. In his most recent works, tangible evidence exists of his knowledge of, and great admiration for, the work of several splendid predecessors. These include Jackson Pollock (in the uniting of the activities of drawing and painting, as well as in the all-over structure), Alberto Burri, and Antoni Tapies (in the poetry of gesture and in the chosen palette).

While continuing to explore what some see as his signatory image - a bowl, or half-spherical shape, Manes has eschewed using his long-favored medium, oil paint, and has built the topographical surfaces of his new works out of layered, irregular shapes cut from burlap. He has utilized the cut edges of the collaged fragments of rough-textured fabric to create a dynamic, all-over drawing. Although he has investigated compositional structures approaching the "all-over" for a number of years, in this body of work, he has achieved a clarity which effects a wonderfully satisfying combination of dynamism and classicism.

Kouros Gallery has published several four color catalogues for Manes.