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Martha Jimenez and her universe of figures

Ceramist from Camaguey, graduated and Master in Fine Arts and Professor of Art for more than 30 years, has specialized in terracotta ceramic sculptures. With a varied and dynamic background, she graduated in Painting, Drawing, Sculpture, Ceramics and Engraving, which allowed her to enter not only in sculpture and to do wonders of clay, but also in painting.

Recognized as "one of the most prolific and talented artists of the last decades in Cuba", Martha, within the academic world, works as an Instructor Teacher of the Academy of Fine Arts and attached to the Ibero-American Chair of Fine Arts and Design "Fidelio Ponce de Leon ". She is part of the Group of Experts of the Provincial Council of Visual Arts and is a member of LASA (Association of Latin American Studies), settled in the USA.

Several museums treasure her artworks: Museum of Colonial Art, of Ceramics, and Ibero-American, from Cuba; National Arts of Art and Craft, Ville de Pezenas, Paris, France; of the Mayor's Office of Madison, USA. Many of her creations are part of galleries and cultural institutions; decorates "Las Paderas" Hotel; or integrate private collections in Cuba, the United States, Mexico, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, France, Canada, Italy, Greece, Germany, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Argentina. Martha is the author of the Monumental Sculpture Square Plaza del Carmen.

She has the Distinction for the National Culture, adds to her curriculum almost a score of recognitions and other prizes, as the Biennial of Ceramics "Amelia Pelaez" (1998, 2001, 2002, 2006); Sculpture in terracotta pottery from the International Handicraft Fair, FIART (1995-1999) and UNESCO; and Urban Renewal Projects.

An arduous expositive work, since 1967, she have more than a hundred personal and collective exhibitions in Cuba, Mexico, Chile, El Salvador, the United States (Michigan and Iowa), the Dominican Republic and France. Are highlighted her exhibitions in international events; Cuba Tourism Fair, Havana (FIHAV), FIART, Ceramic Symposium, and Low-Budget Film Festival.

She bets on good art. Although many call her conservative by her attachment to old supports, her work is revolutionary of esthetic and formal patterns. She manages the traditions with a certain gender approach. She is influenced by Expressionism,  and incorporates recurrent elements such as hair, fish, suns, moons or naked bodies.

Concerned with "the Cuban" that, in her words, led her to "re-study the history of the country and (...) understand the creators from the Cuban", Martha takes up elements of popular culture by renewing them, enhancing them. Alejandro Alonso, director of the Museum of Contemporary Ceramics, places her between the pedestrian and the treatment of serious existential questions: "The wide range of her creative work allows her to go from the small transportable figure as a souvenir of a trip, until the monument that marks certain points of the city".
 

HostelTur Magazine
March 2009