Sylvia Benitez is an American fiction writer, sculptor, and painter. She trained at the University of Maryland in 1975-1979 under David Driskell, Pat Craig, and Martin Puryear. After a brief stint in graduate School, at the Maryland Institute College of Art, she moved to the Lower East Side in Manhattan in 1980 and was part of the burgeoning art scene. During the early eighties, Benitez was artist-in-residence at Thompkins Square Library and showed at Gallery Nature Morte. The early NYC experience provided Benitez with a community of likeminded individuals. Here Benitez, a native Marylander, finally felt at home. The city provided her with a readily available artist community. Naturally sociable, Benitez met artists and critics who were to become lifelong friends. She affiliated herself with early artist organizations such as Brooklyn Waterfront Artist Coalition, Manhattan Graphic Center, Greenwhich House Pottery, and Socrates Sculpture Park. Through the support and efforts of many respected international curators, Lilly Wei, Berta Sichel, Judy Collishan, Sue Spaid, Silvia Cubina, Jennifer McGregor, and Amy Lipton to name a few, Benitez's work flourished. Over the years it has received numerous awards including two Pollock-Krasner Awards, Two National Endowment-for-the-Arts Awards, An AICA award, Socrates Sculpture Park Emerging Artist Award and an Empire State's Craft Award. Her work has been reviewed numerous times in Art in America, Sculpture Magazine, The New York Times, The College Art Association's quarterly periodical, The Baltimore Sun, and many other newspapers. Benitez is represented by The Bill Lowe Gallery in Atlanta Ga, Gallery Nord, San Antonio, Thornwood Gallery, Houston TX, and Austin Street Gallery, Rockport TX.
Sylvia Benitez
Studios
Mixter
Sylvia Benitez worked in the Mixter studio.
Built in 1927–1930, the Florence Kilpatrick Mixter Studio was funded by its namesake and designed by the architect F. Winsor, Jr., who also designed MacDowell's original Savidge Library in 1925. Mixter Studio, solidly built of yellow and grey-hued granite, once had sweeping views of Pack Monadnock to the east. The lush forest has now grown…