Calabaza
Urdaneta’s consummate skill as a ceramicist is fully evident in this depiction of a calabash — a staple provision across the Caribbean that the artist elevates to an object of aesthetic beauty. The delicate curl resembling a question mark adds a further decorative flourish, pointing to the inherent beauty that exists within our everyday surroundings.
About the Artist
Cecilia Urdaneta
b. 1967
Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Cecilia Urdaneta studied ceramics at Stetson University, Florida, and at the Akademia di Arte and Studio Giourette in Curaçao under the guidance of the artist Ellen Spijkstra. She moved to the Cayman Islands in 2002, where she taught ceramics at NGCI and the Visual Art Society. She has held exhibitions at the Duncan Gallery (Stetson University, 1996), Arawak Clay Products (Curaçao, 1998), and Studio Giourette (Curaçao, 2002), as well as exhibiting at the Cayfest arts festival in 2006 and 2009. Urdaneta was one of three artists to participate in the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands inaugural Art in Residency programme and exhibition in 2008 and her work is featured in Art of the Cayman Islands, the Islands’ first formal art history (Scala Fine Art Publishers Ltd.: Fall 2016). NGCI exhibitions include A Day in the Life (2008), Ceramic Art (2014), All Access (2015), and Revive: Contemporary Caymanian Craft (2017).
