Lidya Buzio
b. 1948, Montevideo, Uruguay – d. 2014, Greenport, New York
A unique talent in the world of ceramics, Buzio had worked in clay in New York
since 1972. Born in Uruguay, Buzio learned to create, form, and shape clay
sculptures from the Taller Torres-García master ceramicist José Collell, based
on ancient Amerindian practices. Buzio continues to work with this same
method, cutting earthenware slabs into geometric shapes, and then combining
these cylinders, cones, and hemispheres to form the body of her sculptures.
Using special pigments which she mixed herself, the artist drew and painted
directly onto her unfired works. Before firing, Buzio burnished her pieces; this
step serves to fuse the paint into the clay and results in the unique luminosity
and distinctive hues that characterize her artworks.
After moving to New York, Buzio's pictorial vocabulary shifted to reflect her new, urban surroundings, inspiring her
to create her New York Cityscapes, with their evocative rooflines, cast iron architecture and water towers. Her last
series of abstract geometric designs executed in bright primary colors represented a new direction in her practice.
Buzio's ceramics are found in the Painting & Sculpture Collection of the Brooklyn Museum, New York; the Museum
of Fine Arts Houston, Texas; the Smithsonian National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C; the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art; the San Francisco Fine Arts Museums; the Honolulu Academy of Art, Hawaii; the Victoria &
Albert Museum, London; National Museum of History, Taipei City, Taiwan and other museums and private
collections internationally.
Museum Collections
Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
Untitled Roofscape Vessel XIX, 1986, 12⅝ x 12½ x 10¾ in.
Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York
Roofscape X, 1987, 17¾ x 14½ in.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
N.Y.C. Roofscape XXIII, 1984, 8½ x 14⅛ x14 in.
Round Blue Roofscape X, 1986, 11¼ x 13⅜ in.
Untitled Roofscape XVI, 1991, 17½ x 13⅛ x 12 in.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California
Roofscape, 1983, 11 x 14⅓ x 6 in.
Untitled, 1984, 15½ x 11 in.
M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, California
Untitled (Square Vessel), 1982, 12⅞ x 9¾ in.
Roofscape Teapot Xlll, 2003, 6½ x 9¾ x 6 in. 17 x 25 x 15 cm.
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
Untitled (Square Vessel) XXIII, 1984, 11⅛ x 9⅞ x 9⅞ in.
Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York
Untitled VI, 1985, 13 in. height
Alfred Ceramic Art Museum, Alfred, New York
Untitled Cityscape, 1983, 13 in. height
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, R.I.
Cityscape, 1983, 15 in. height
Roofscape lX, 1990, 16 x 8 in. 41 x 20 cm.
Long Beach Museum of Art, California
Soho Roofscape Vessel, 1982, 7½ x 12 x 8¾ in.
Loan: Melba and Al Langman Collection
Berkeley Art Museum, California
Recessed Smokestack Roofscape, 1985, 19 x 25 x 1½ in.
Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas
Untitled, 1983, 12⅞ x 9¾ in.
Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Johnson Co. Com. College, Kansas
Untitled Roofscape, 1986, 18½ x 13 in. 27 x 33 cm.
University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa
Untitled Roofscape, 1986, 13¾ x 15 x 13 in. 35 x 38 x 33 cm.
Kamm Teapot Foundation, Statesville, North Carolina
Roofscape Teapot, 1991, 4½ x 9¼ x 6¾ in. 11 x 23 x 27 cm.
Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe
Moon Flask Vessel, 1983, 12½ x 9¼ x 4⅝ in.
Hallmark Art Collection, Kansas City, Missouri
Roofscape Vessel VIII, 1987, 16½ in.
Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin
Untitled Teapot, 1990, 10 x 9 x 9 in.
Dark Blue Roofscape IV, 1994, 8 x 10¼ x 9¾ in.
New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana
Soho Roofscape XXLV,
Untitled Cityscape,
Honolulu Academy of Art, Hawaii
Roofscape Vessel, 1992, 4½ x 8¼ in.
Roofscape Teapot XX, 1993, 4½ x 8 x 6 in.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Soho Roofscape, 1983, 5⅜ x 13⅛ in.
National Museum of History, Taipei City, Taiwan
Untitled XII, 1991, 16 x 13 in.
Museum of Fine Arts, Tai Pei, Taiwan
Teapot ll -Roofscape, 1994, 7 x 10½ in. 18 x 26 cm.
Main Solo Exhibitions
2012 Cecilia de Torres, Ltd, New York.
Art Sites, Riverhead, New York
2009 South Street Gallery, Greenport, New York
2006 Art Sites, Riverhead, New York
2004 Garth Clark Gallery, New York
1996 Garth Clark Gallery, New York
1993 Garth Clark Gallery, New York
1992 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles
1991 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles and New York
1989 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles
1988 Garth Clark Gallery, New York
1987 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles
1986 Garth Clark Gallery, New York
Fuller/Goldeen Gallery, San Francisco
1985 Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse
Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles
1984 Greenberg Gallery, St. Louis
1983 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles and New York
Thomas Segal Gallery, Boston
1977 Rawspace Gallery, New York
1973 Greenwich House Pottery, New York
Group Exhibitions
2021 The City as Muse: Works by Lidya Buzio and Sarah Grilo, Cecilia de Torres, Ltd. New York
2018 Abstracting Gender, Seven Latin American Women Artists, Cecilia de Torres, Ltd., New York
The Very Mirror of Life: Ceramics at the Everson 1968-2018¸Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York
2016 Under the Influence, Cecilia de Torres, Ltd., New York
2013 Contemporary Abstraction: Recent Works by Gallery Artists, Cecilia de Torres, Ltd., New York
2012 Shifting Paradigms in Contemporary Ceramics. The Garth Clark & Mark Del Vecchio Collection, The Museum of Fine
Arts Houston, Texas
2011 44th Springs Invitational Exhibition, East Hampton, New York
Red Dot. East End Art Council, Riverhead, New York
2010 Collecting with Passion: Contemporary Ceramics - Lennie & Jerry Berkowitz Collection, Nelson-Atkins Museum,
Kansas City, Missouri
Bricks & Mortar: Inspired by Architecture, Santa Fe Clay, New Mexico
Dream Sequences, Palo Alto Art Center, California
2009 Dirt On Delight: Impulses That Form Clay, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2008 Architecture and Ceramics, Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
2007 An Art of Our Own: Women Ceramicists from the Permanent Collection, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York
ReGrouping: 3 Generations of Latin American Artists in New York, Mishkin Gallery, New York
Cityscape/Landscape, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
All for Art! Our Great Private Collectors Share Their Works, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada
2006 DWELL, Nelson Fine Arts Center, Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe
Line-Plane-Volume/Sculpture: 1944-2006, Cecilia de Torres, Ltd., New York
2005 Studio Ceramics from the Museum Collection, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence
FRAGILE: Think With Care, Wyvern University Gallery, University of Essex, Great Britain
Works ON & OF Paper, Cecilia de Torres, Ltd., New York
School of The South, Marlboro College, Vermont
2004 Tea, Anyone? The Donna Moog Teapot Collection, Racine Art Museum, Wisconsin
2003 Sueños y Encuentros, Works by Latin American Masters, Long Beach Museum of Art, California
Fast Forward II, Berkeley Art Museum, University of California
Spring Exhibition, Robischon Gallery, Denver, Colorado
2002 New Works, Art Site, Greenport, New York
The Artful Teapot, 20th C. Expressions from the Kamm Collection, COPIA Museum, Napa, California; Montgomery
Museum of Fine Art, Montgomery, Alabama; Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto, Canada; Long Beach
Museum of Art, California; and Mint Museum of Craft & Design, Charlotte, North Carolina
2001 U.S.A. Clay, Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
2000 Works from the Saxe Collection, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, California
Color and Fire. The Smits Collection and Related Works, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; Kemper
Museum of Contemporary Art. Kansas City, MO.; The Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block. Tucson, AZ.;
Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester. Rochester, N.Y.
A Latin American Metaphysical Perspective, Cecilia de Torres, Ltd., New York
1999 Gallery Artists, Cecilia de Torres, Ltd., New York
1998 Real & Imagined, Robischon Gallery, Denver, Colorado
1997 New Works, Robischon Gallery, Denver, Colorado
1996 A Walk in the Woods, Islip Art Museum, New York
The Still Life, Cecilia de Torres, Ltd., New York
1995 65 Years of Constructivist Wood, Cecilia de Torres, Ltd., New York
1994 The Collector’s Eye: Ceramics from the Milrad Collection, Koffler Gallery, Toronto, Canada
1992 International Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary Ceramic Art, National Museum of History, Republic of China
1991 Parallels & Divergence: One Heritage, Two Paths, Daniel Saxon Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1990 Rituals of Tea, Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1989 Surface and Form: A Union of Polarities in Contemporary Ceramics, The National Museum of Ceramic Art,
Baltimore, Maryland
Kansas City Collects Contemporary Ceramics, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
A Woman’s Perspective, Muckenthaler Cultural Center, Fullerton, California
1987 Hispanic Art in the United States: Thirty Contemporary Painters & Sculptors, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The
Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington, D.C.; The Lowe Art Museum, Miami, Florida; Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe,
New Mexico; Centro Cultural de Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California;
and The Brooklyn Museum, New York
1986 American Potters Today, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Great Britain
Beyond Clay, Kiley Hall Gallery, Queens College-CUNY, Flushing, New York
Painted Volumes, Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia
Ceramics - a Survey, Joanne Lyon Gallery, Aspen, Colorado
1985 Contemporary American Ceramists/Twenty Artists, Newport Harbor Art Museum, California
1983 Ceramic Echoes, Historical References in Contemporary Ceramics, Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri
Constructions, San Francisco International Airport Arts Commission, California
Surfaces, Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1982 Introductions, Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1981 Clayworks Gallery, New York
1980 Teapot Invitational, Horizon Gallery, California
Books and Catalogues
Clark, Garth. The House at 5510 (essay), Lidya Buzio Ceramics. Cecilia de Torres, Ltd. New York, 2012.
Clark, Garth and Cindi Strauss. Shifting Paradigms in Contemporary Ceramics. The Garth Clark & Mark Del Vecchio Collection,
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas. Yale University Press, New Haven, 2012.
Naranjo Morse, Nora and Robert Bruce Silberman. Architecture & Ceramics: Material, Structure, Vision. Northern Clay
Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2008.
All for Art! Our Great Private Collectors Share Their Works, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada, 2007.
Reilly, Maura and Linda Nochlin. Global Feminisms: new directions in contemporary art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York,
2007.
Del Vecchio, Mark. Postmodern Ceramics. Thames & Hudson, New York, 2001.
Lauria, Jo. Color and Fire. Defining Moments in Studio Ceramics, 1950-2000. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los
Angeles, California, 2000.
Anglin Burgard, Timothy. The Art of Craft: Contemporary Works from the Saxe Collection, M.H. de Young Memorial
Museum, San Francisco, California, 1999.
Clark, Garth. The Book of Cups. Abbeville Press, New York, 1996.
Lloyd, Herman and Aaron Milrad. The Collector's Eye: Contemporary Ceramics American, Canadian and British from the
Collection of Aaron Milrad, The Koffler Gallery, Toronto, Canada, 1994.
Drexler Lynn, Martha. Clay Today: Contemporary Ceramists and Their Work, Los Angeles County Museum, California.
Chronicle Books, San Francisco, California, 1990.
Perry, Barbara. American Ceramics: The Collection of the Everson Museum of Art. Rizzoli, Syracuse, New York, 1989.
McTwigan, Michael. Surface and Form: A Union of Polarities in Contemporary Ceramics, The National Museum of Ceramic
Art, Baltimore, Maryland, 1989.
Johnston, Phillip M. Kansas City Collects Contemporary Ceramics, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, 1989.
Clark, Garth. The Eccentric Teapot: Four Hundred Years of Invention. Abbeville Press, New York, 1989.
Levin, Elaine. History of American Ceramics, 1607 to the Present. Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1988.
Clark, Garth. American Ceramics, 1876 to the Present. Abbeville Press, New York, 1988.
Watson, Oliver. American Potters Today: An Exhibition of American Studio Pottery, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Great
Britain, 1986.
Beardsley, John, Jane Livingstone, and Octavio Paz. Hispanic Art in the United States: Thirty Contemporary Painters and
Sculptors. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas. Abbeville Press, New York, 1987.
McCready, Karen. Contemporary American Ceramics, Twenty Artists, Newport Harbor Art Museum, California, 1985.
Clark, Garth. Ceramic Echoes: Historical References in Contemporary Ceramics, The Contemporary Art Society, Kansas City,
Missouri, 1983.
Periodicals
Kartofel, Graciela, Lidya Buzio, Cecilia de Torres Gallery. (Review) Art Nexus No.89 Volume 12, 2013.
Weideman, Paul, “Bricks and Mortar - Santa Fe Clay,” Pasatiempo, (April-May 2010)
Genocchio, Benjamin, Art Sites review, New York Times, (September 17, 2006)
Morgan, Robert C., “Latin America Rediscovered: Lidya Buzio", American Ceramics, Volume 15, Number 1, (2006)
Vivas Zamorano, Antonio, Revista Internacional Cerámica, Barcelona, Spain (2002)
Bradley, Jeff, “Art exhibit a ‘moving show,’” The Denver Post, (August 17, 1998)
Harrison, Helen A., “A Walk in the Woods,” New York Times, (October 27, 1996)
The Magazine of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, (1989)
Pincus, Robert L., “Art that Springs from Latin Roots,” The Christian Science Monitor, (September 22, 1988 )
Stevens, Mark, “Devotees of the Fantastic,” Newsweek, (September 7, 1987)
“The Fine Art of Collecting Crafts,” Changing Times, (November 7, 1987)
Gottlieb, Shirle, “Ceramic Art that Breaks with Tradition,” Long Beach Press Telegram, (June 7, 1985)
Pincus, Robert L., “Museum Exhibits some Evocative Feats of Clay,” The San Diego Union, (June 2, 1985)
Buzio, Lidya, “Line and Rhythm,” Studio Potter, Number 14, Volume 1 (1985)
Buzio, Lidya, “Ceramic Cityscapes,” Studio Potter, Number 11, Volume 2, (1983)
Lebow, Edward, “Lidya Buzio, Duple Rhythms,” Ceramic Arts, Volume 1, Number 1, (Spring 1983)
Lebow, Edward, “Lidya Buzio: In Perspective,” American Ceramics, Volume 2, Number 2, (Spring 1983)
Lectures
Visiting Artist Program, Department of fine Arts, University of Colorado at Boulder, 1996
