Sylvia Blanco
"Paisaje redondo II* " (1984)
"Paisaje redondo II* " (1984)
Sculptor, ceramicist, and teacher. Blanco graduated from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, in 1964, and began courses at the Caparra Studio in Guaynabo (founded by Jaime Suárez and Maribel Toro in 1972) and the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture. She has taken part in several local events and, internationally, in the International Art Ceramics Competition in Faenza, Italy, in 1983 and 1986, where her pieces were awarded gold medals. Her work helped shatter the notion of ceramics as a “minor art” when it was given first prize for sculpture at the annual Plastic Arts Competition sponsored by the Ateneo Puertorriqueño; she later became chair of the Department of Sculpture at the Puerto Rico School of Plastic Arts. She has worked in several ceramic techniques, with particular mastery of reduction firing. The circle is a constant motif in her work, almost always functioning as a ground for the landscapes and seascapes that she favors.