Jorge Blanco

For the Mexican actor and singer, see Jorge Blanco (actor).
Jorge Blanco
Born March 21, 1945
Caracas, Venezuela

Jorge Blanco (born March 21, 1945 in Caracas) is an artist from Venezuela who emigrated to the United States in 1999. He has spent his professional career working as a sculptor,[1] graphic designer and illustrator. His work is in public sites in the United States, South America and Japan.

Education

Blanco began drawing and painting in 1967 and sculpting in the early 1970s, although he was interested in art from an early age. He received his formal training at the Neumann Institute in Caracas, Venezuela, which he attended with the aid of a scholarship. He graduated in 1971 with a degree in Industrial Design, after which he worked as a graphic designer. From 1975 to 1979, he lived in Rome, Italy, where he attended open classes at the Academy of Fine Arts.

Career

Blanco's first solo exhibition was in 1974, where he showed sculpture and drawings. A year later, he moved to Rome, Italy, where he continued to work in sculpture while making a living by doing freelance graphic design drawing cartoons for a variety of newspapers and magazines, including political cartoons for the newspaper L'Opinione.[2] It was during this period that he first conceived the idea of a comic strip.

In 1978, Blanco participated in the Bordhigera Humor Salon, winning the Dattero D'Argento, and in the Monterotondo Sculpture Salon, where he was awarded the first prize for medium format sculpture.

In 1979, Blanco returned to Caracas, Venezuela where he exhibited his sculptures and drawings at the Sofía Imber Museum of Contemporary Art. Here, he continued working in sculpture but he also designed and illustrated a children's newspaper El Cohete.

In 1980, he was hired as the Art Director for the Caracas Children's Museum (Art, Science and Technology, Museo de los Niños) [3] (1980–1998). He worked there for 18 years.

That same year, Blanco created the comic strip The Castaway/El Náufrago, which became an overnight success. It was published in major newspapers and magazines in Venezuela and lead to significant sales in merchandising and books. The Castaway even crossed over to television. Due to the comic's success, Blanco no longer had time to work on his sculpture alongside his work as freelance graphic designer, illustrator, and his job at the museum, and reluctantly had to put sculpture aside.

In 1989, Blanco returned to sculpture, and eventually left the Caracas Children's Museum to move to the United States, where he still lives today. Whereas his earlier work focused on more unconventional materials, his work now had a different approach, focused more on metals and bright colors. Blanco began exhibiting again in both Venezuela and the United States as well as around the world. In 1996, Blanco installed four sculptures in Tokyo, Japan, which launched his fascination with public art.

Since 1999, Blanco has lived and worked on the West Coast of Florida, with a particular focus on public art. In 2005, Blanco became an American citizen. He currently resides in Sarasota, Florida.[4]

In 2007, Blanco received the John Ringling Visual Art Award.

The Castaway (El Naufrago)

The Castaway is a comic strip created by Blanco in 1980 about a man trapped on an island that was originally printed in the newspaper El Diario de Caracas. The strip was wildly popular, and images from it have graced the covers of notebooks, phone cards, and T-shirts.[5]

Influences

Blanco's early works were influenced by his teachers Gertrude Goldschmidt (Gego) and Cornelis Zitman and by the work of artists such as Auguste Herbin, Paul Klee and Joan Miró. At this time, he worked with unconventional materials such as Lycra, rope, wood, mirrors, and bronze. Blanco's sculptures were and continue to be geometric studies, interpretations of his internal world. In 1992, Blanco began to explore color and metal as a primary material.[6]

Public art

Exhibits

Solo exhibitions

Selected group exhibitions

References

  1. ↑ "Sarasota Sculptures Coming Down". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. May 29, 2008. Retrieved September 7, 2010.
  2. ↑ "L'Opinione, December 1978
  3. ↑ Maravillosarealidad.Com
  4. ↑ "Sculptures brighten Sarasota skyline". Bradenton Herald. November 11, 2007. Retrieved September 7, 2010.
  5. ↑ "El Náufrago" de Jorge Blanco, Libro 1, Prologo de Pedro Leon Zapata
  6. ↑ "Jorge Blanco" (PDF). Scene Magazine. Retrieved 22 December 2012.

Sources