Lidya Buzio

1948Born Montevideo, Uruguay

2014Died Long Island, New York

EDUCATION

1967-1968Studied with the Spanish painter and ceramist, José Collell

PRIMARY WORK EXPERIENCE

1972Set up her first studio space in New York, New York

BIOGRAPHY

Lidya Buzio is known for sculptural forms that retain earthenware slabs as part of the finished object. The forms and surfaces reference cityscapes and abstractions using a bright color palette. Her process began with earthenware slabs that she manipulated into abstract vessel forms or multi-piece, small scale sculptures. The surfaces of the pieces were burnished until they became smooth and then were painted using colored slips, reburnished and fired. Finally they were waxed. This resulted in the fresco-like surfaces Buzio sought in her work.

Buzio’s early exposure to Joaquin Torres-Garcia’s Constructivist Universalist painting had been an ongoing influence on her ceramics as was her time with Jose Collell studying painting and then ceramics.  

In 1997 Buzio moved to the north fork of Long Island where the sea became a prominent motif; the New York skyline provided a background to images of boats, the sea and to abstractions that relied on color and surface. Frustrated by life in the ceramic world she began to build constructivist wooden sculptures in the 1990s, however, she soon returned to ceramics.