Lorraine de Castro
San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1946
Biography Details
Sculptor, ceramist and professor. De Castro obtained a Bachelor's degree in fine arts from the University of Puerto Rico in 1972. From 1982 to 1984 she undertook graduate courses in sculpture at New York University in addition to ceramics courses at the University of Puerto Rico and Estudio Caparra in Guaynabo. She was a founding member of the now disbanded Grupo Manos, with which she took part in numerous exhibitions between 1977 to 1981 in and outside the country. She was also a founding member of the Association of Women Artists of Puerto Rico, which promoted the work of Puerto Rican women artists between 1983 to 1993, both on the island and in the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America. She has taught at Art Students League, Escuela de Artes Plásticas and currently is Professor at Art-Crafts Workshop at the University of Puerto Rico. De Castro has received several awards throughout her career, and her work forms part of many private and public collections in and out of Puerto Rico. She has identified and preocupied with women’s issues in her work,. Her female figures are images-symbols which can only be accomplished with clay for its association with Mother Earth. In all of the artist’s work there is a mixture of the grotesque, terrible, the pathetic, the dramatic and comic which reflects not only the identity and personality of the artist, but the society in which it is located, and of humanity in general.
Artist Statement
“My clay sculptures and plaques are merely unfinished attempts at self-introspection. A duality between skin and soil that generates a range of expressive possibilities about matter and spirituality, strength and weakness, duty and liberty, positive and negative, similar and opposite. Maybe I’ll get it right one of these days”.
Lorraine de Castro
Formation
Education
1999-1997
- Courses of Masters in History. Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe, San Juan, Puerto Rico
1985-1983
- Courses of Masters in Sculpture. New York University, New York, United States
1972
- Bachelors of Fine Arts. Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Professional Experience
1989-2012
- Professor of sculpture and ceramics. Arts-Crafts, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico
1996-99
- Professor of sculpture and ceramics. Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico
1981-97
- Professor of sculpture and ceramics. Art Students League, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Exhibitions
Solo Shows
1990
- Taller de Castro, Carolina, Puerto Rico
1982
- La Rotisserie, Caribe Hilton Hotel, San Juan, Puerto Rico
1981
- Galería Botello, San Juan, Puerto Rico
1980
- Galería Manos, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Group Shows
2013
- Colectiva de Profesores, Art Students League, San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Flota de Cerámica, Centro de Bellas Artes Luis A. Ferré, San Juan, Puerto Rico
2012
- Arteando, Museo de Arte de Arecibo, Arecibo, Puerto Rico
2011
- …y del Barro surgió el Arte, La Ciudadela, San Juan, Puerto Rico
2010
- De Papel y Barro, Galería 778, San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Desde el Centro, Museo Casa Escuté, Carolina, Puerto Rico
- La Buena Vida Festival, Decimoquinto Aniversario, Palmas del Mar, Humacao, Puerto Rico
2009
- Muestra Nacional , Antiguo Arsenal de la Marina Española, Instituto de Cultura, San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Libre albedrío, Galería La Pintadera, San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Congelado por el Fuego: Casa Candina y la Cerámica Puertorriqueña, Museo de Ponce en Plaza, Plaza las Américas, San Juan, Puerto Rico
2007
- Contexto puertorriqueño: del rococó colonial al are global, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico
1995
- Intercambio 3, Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico
1986
- Encuentro de Ceramistas Contemporáneos de América Latina, Museo de Arte de Ponce, Ponce, Puerto Rico
1983
- Arte Actual Puerto Rico, Chase Manhattan, San Juan, Puerto Rico
1981
- Expresiones en Barro, Museo de Arte de Ponce, Ponce, Puerto Rico
1980
- Escultura en Barro de Puerto Rico, Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts, United States
- Galería Manos, San Juan, Puerto Rico
1979
- Museo Historia, Antropología y Arte, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras, San Juan, Puerto Rico
- San Juan City Hall, San Juan , Puerto Rico
- Galería Manos, San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Certamen Anual, Ateneo Puertorriqueño, San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Festival de Cerámica Puertorriqueña, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, San Juan, Puerto Rico
1978
- Cerámica de Manos, Livingston College Art Gallery, Rutgers University, New Jersey, United Sates
- Segundo Festival de Cerámica Puertorriqueña, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Galería Manos, San Juan, Puerto Rico
1977
- Galería Manos, San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Primer Festival de Cerámica Puertorriqueña, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, San Juan, Puerto Rico
1976
- 6ta Exposición Anual, Asociación de Cerámica Artística, San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Certamen Anual, Ateneo Puertorriqueño, San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Colectiva de Navidad, Galería Estudio Caparra, San Juan, Puerto Rico
1975
- Cerámica, Estudio Caparra, Caparra Country Club, San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Certamen Anual, Ateneo Puertorriqueño, San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Certamen Anual, Asociación de Cerámica Artística, San Juan, Puerto Rico
1974
- Cerámicas, Estudio Caparra, Colegio de Ingenieros, San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Certamen Anual, Asociación de Cerámica Artística, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, San Juan, Puerto Rico
1973
- Certamen Anual, Asociación de Cerámica Artística, San Juan, Puerto Rico
1966
- Certamen Anual de Estudiantes, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Awards, Distinctions and Achievements
1973
- Third Prize Mural. Asociación de Cerámica Artística de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Second Prize Mural. Asociación de Cerámica Artística de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico
1966
- First Prize. Annual Competition of Art Students, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Second Prize. Annual Competition of Art Students, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Collections
- Museo de Arte de Ponce, Ponce, Puerto Rico
- The Clay Sudio, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
- Casa Candina, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Bibliography
Books
Suárez, Jaime. Ceramica Puertorriqueña Contemporanea: John Balossi, Sylvia Blanco, Lorraine De Castro, Susana Espinosa, Toni Hambleton, Bernardo Hogan, Jaime Suarez. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1984.
Catalogues
Benítez, Marimar, Haydeée Venegas, and Jaime Suárez. Expresiones En Barro: Exposición De Esculturas Del Grupo Manos. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Museo de Arte de Ponce, 1981.
Newspapers
Gonzalez Pérez, Leyra. “Arte para todos los gustos” El Nuevo Día (San Juan, PR) 6 de noviembre de 2008 pp. 76-77.