National Prize of Plastic Arts of Venezuela is an annual award given to various artists from that country, specifically the field of drawing, printmaking and drawing pictorial. It is one of the National Culture Awards.
The reward is delivered continuously since 1947. In 1952 awarding paused for about 19 years, resumed in 1971. The granting is made on an annual basis since its first edition until 2001, when it turned biennial. An exception to this rule was 2003, when it waited three years to give the next award, and then return to biennial delivery.
Ramón José Velásquez Mujica was a Venezuelan politician, historian, journalist, and lawyer. He served as the president of Venezuela between 1993 and 1994.
Martín Tovar y Tovar was a Venezuelan painter, best known for his portraits and historical scenes.
Rodolfo Abularach was a Guatemalan painter and printmaker of Palestinian descent.
Jorge Blanco is a Venezuelan-born American artist, who emigrated to the United States in 1999. He has spent his professional career working as a sculptor, graphic designer and illustrator. His work is in public sites in the United States, South America and Japan. Blanco is an international artist who has created a sculptural language over more than thirty years. Blanco has placed 25 public art sculptures in large format across the globe. In addition to public art, Blanco continues his life trajectory with collectible sculptures, his comic strip "The Castaway," and furniture design. His artworks form part of sales in auction houses such as Sotheby's and Christie's. In 1971, Blanco graduated as an industrial designer from the Neumann Institute of Design in Caracas, Venezuela. Under the mentorship of European artists living as expatriates in Caracas, Blanco learned to integrate industrial design with creative processes. His instructors were predominantly artists, such as Gego and Cornelis Zitman, who emphasized artistry in their classrooms. Blanco graduated with a degree in industrial design upon the completion of his first furniture line for children, which was a thesis project. Immediately after graduation Blanco began his career as a sculptor, freelance graphic designer and furniture designer. In the late 70s he studied at Rome's Academy of Fine Arts. During his stay in Europe Blanco also uncovered the world of cartoonists. This discovery led Blanco to create the comic strip, "The Castaway." In 1980, "The Castaway" made its debut in El Diario de Caracas. T Castaway was widely disseminated across the city, including the city's metro system. Eight books have been published on Blanco's "The Castaway." As "The Castaway" continued to live its success, Blanco illustrated more than twenty storybooks for children and countless educational books. His accomplishments as illustrator led him to El Museo de los Niños, where he served as Creative Director for twenty years.Like the work of his primary influences, Klee, Miró, Herbin and Calder, Blanco's presents his sculptures in primary colors. Blanco's largest body of work has been created and fabricated in the United States, where he lives and works since 1999. His artwork has received multiple accolades.
Manuel Espinosa was an Argentinian painter.
Joel Gerardo Casique was an artist who formed the Escuela Cristóbal Rojas de Caracas. He obtained an art degree at the Art Students League of New York. He has exhibited his work in galleries and museums in Venezuela, the United States, and Aruba; he has also participated in national and international fairs, including the sixteenth and seventeenth Ferias Iberoamericanas de Arte (FIA) in Caracas; the 2007 Latin American Art Fair in Miami; and the 2006 Feria Internacional de Arte de Bogotá (ARTBO) in Bogotá, Colombia.
Juan Lovera was a Venezuelan painter, best known for his portraits and historical scenes relating to his country's independence movement.
Samy Mauricio Benmayor Benmayor is a Chilean painter who formed part of the Generation of '80 movement.
Pedro Miguel de Cervantes Salvadores was a Mexican sculptor who exhibited in Mexico and abroad and created large monumental works for various locations in the country. Some of his work is noted for its use of used materials such as automobile parts from junkyards. Cervantes received various recognitions for his work including Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes in 2011 as well as membership in the Academia de Artes and the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana.
Beatriz Zamora is a Mexican artist who is best known for her monochrome works in black. Although she has struggled commercially, her work has been recognized at various points in her career such as with membership in the Legion of Honor of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in France and the Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte in Mexico.
Teobaldo Nina Mamani is a painter and teacher. Originally from Moquegua, Peru, Nina attended school at Esc. Bellas Artes in Lima under the tutelage of Ángel Cuadros. Nina has won multiple awards for his work, including but not limited to Premio de Dibujo de Esc. Bellas Artes. Segundo Premio Mitchell y Cía. Mención Honrosa and X Concurso Nacional de Artistas Jóvenes ICPNA.
Rogelio Polesello was an Argentine painter, muralist and sculptor. He was best known for making Op art known in Latin America. He won two Konex Awards; one in 1982 and another in 2012. He was born in Buenos Aires.
Juan Vicente Gómez Landaeta, better known as Pájaro, is a Venezuelan painter whose work has reached from figurative painting to expressionism and surrealism.
Alirio Palacios was a Venezuelan visual artist known for his drawings, graphic designing, printmaking and sculpture. Horse figures were often motifs of his graphic art and sculpture, an obsession he developed during his long stay in China. Among other awards, Palacios won the National Prize of Plastic Arts of Venezuela in 1977. His work is on display in museums and public sites internationally, including the presidential Palace and the National Supreme Court in Caracas, the Casa de Las Américas in Havana, and the University of Edinburgh where Palacio's portrait of the first Venezuelan President José María Vargas is on permanent display.
Azalea Quiñones is a Venezuelan painter and poet. In her plastic arts work, she combines techniques of drawing, painting and collage, using materials such as charcoal, crayon, jute, oil, pastels, paint and silk. Her book Purisima includes both prose and poetry.
Margot Römer was a Venezuelan artist, who was a leader of radical experimental art, a teacher and a professional pilot. Her artwork reflected topics involving domesticity and sensuality of the human body. She emphasized topics of the female body by using objects to create irony. Römer had diverse knowledge in many mediums including silkscreen, pencil, oil painting, and sometimes assemblages or collages involving found objects.
Mateo Manaure was a Venezuelan modern artist. In Venezuela he is considered a master of abstractionism, and is known for his works in the University City of Caracas and for creating the largest glass mural in the world.
Alirio Rodríguez was a Venezuelan painter and visual artist. He was born in El Callao, Venezuela, and died in Caracas, Venezuela. His art was widely acclaimed in his native Venezuela and abroad, winning him multiple awards and recognitions as one of the top Venezuelan plastic artists of the 20th century.
Pancho Quilici is a Venezuelan visual artist, known for his work with geometric and abandoned landscapes as its recurring subjects which frequently feature impossible architecture, with symbolic and fantastical influences. His work has been described as being influenced by Giambattista Piranesi.
