[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-133602-en":3,"doc-seo-133602-105":31,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":92},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":28,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":29,"read_time":30},133602,8796095360427,"Lucas Martin","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_994ba38a5ba835b3df7d355c54d3ed8d",2,"Literature","Isabel De Obaldía: Crafting Culture","Exhibition essay on painter Isabel De Obaldía’s shift into glass work after training at Pilchuck Glass Studio, emphasizing how the medium’s constraints and improvisational performativity shape her cast-glass sculptures. It analyzes the exhibition’s metate-based series—rooted in pre-Columbian grinding stones—to explore the boundary between art and craft, and to frame her practice within questions of cultural memory, identity, and spiritual ties to environment. The text situates her interests in Panama’s Chiriquí and Veraguas alongside broader art-world debates since the 1980s.","# Isabel DeQbaldía\n\nMetates  \n# Isabel De Obaldía\n\nMetates  \nNovember 15-December 13,2013  \nmary-anne martin fine art  \n23 East 73rd StreetNew York,NY 10021tel:(212)288-2213fax:(212)861-7656email:mail@mamfa.comwebsite:www.mamfa.com  \nThe artist2013  \n# Isabel De Obaldía:Crafting Culture\n\nLowery Stokes Sims  \nCurator,Museum of Arts and Design,NY  \nIt is well known that the painter Isabel De Obaldía gravitated to workingin glass when in 1987 she decided to take a course at Pilchuck Glass Studio inWashington State where many a contemporary career in glass has been launched.Despite the obvious physical and logistical challenges,she found a métier that wasuniquely compatible with her vision and her sensibility.Like metal working,glasscan be constrained by certain gender associations.But there is also a performativeaspect to the medium,that is as free-form and improvisational as it is controlledand predetermined.De Obaldía once described it as choreography where “every-one had a role.”2  \nOne false step and one deals with molten matter at over 3000 degrees.Watch-ing films of De Obaldía working one is struck by her deft navigation of the dynam-ics of often all-male studios and her vigilant participation in a process on whichshe is dependent on others to proceed.Bending,watching,cutting,intervening atjust the right moment,she alternately directs,presides over and participates in themaking of her cast glass works of art.It is she who lays out the open-face sandmolds she prefers so that she can control the impression of surface elements andthe insertion of elements that float like ghostly evocations of their ancestors withinthe substance of the glass.It is she who chases,carves and polishes the surfaces—opaque and sandy or translucent and smooth—to finish them and achieve thetotality of texture and presentation for the final product.  \nIn the series of glass sculptures in this exhibition—based on the pre-Columbi-an utensil of the metate or grinding stone—De Obaldía brings together a numberof artistic and cultural signifiers.First there is the questioning of the relationshipbetween art and craft which involves the negotiating of that liminal space betweenform and function.This negotiation commenced in the 1950s as can be observedin the work of Peter Voulkos (ceramics),Olga de Amaral (textiles),and ThermanStatom and Josiah McElheny (glass),to name a few.So while De Obaldia'smetates are not functional,it is pertinent to note that this form continues to beused by indigenous communities throughout Central America.In her hands they  \n可Sketch for Shark BeastOKE  \nbecome signature forms that evoke and represent cultural as wellas formal andmaterial influences in her work.  \nThis fact begins to suggest how her work also relates to cultural and identityissues in the visual arts.Tina Oldknow would appropriately situate De Obaldía'ssubject matter within modalities of primitivism in western art which date from theend of the 19th century.⁴Edward Sullivan evokes currents of Neo-Expressionismin the 1980s and 90s,⁵and Monica Kupfer reminds us of how the political traumasin Panama during the late 1980s greatly influenced the artist's work and subjectmatter.⁶But De Obaldía's specific interest in and identification with the art of theChiriquí and Veraguas provinces in Panama(see Taylor essay)also reflects trendsin critical and theoretical thinking in the art world since the 1980s which haveprivileged issues of identity.  \nArtists of Latin American heritage have engaged various strategies under thisrubric.Most have focused on the celebration of cultural retentions and resistancein Latino and indigenous cultures within the social and economic dominanceof colonial establishments—both Hispanic and Anglo—in the Americas.A fewartists,however,have actively engaged pre-Columbian art.They range from thelate African American sculptor Elizabeth Catlett who,during the six decades shelived and worked in Mexico,referenced the ancestral sculpture of Mexico in herwork to ","cbCaif8vpgjKumdz","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaif8vpgjKumdz","pdf",5348722,5,1,56,"English","en",105,"# Isabel De Obaldía: Crafting Culture\n## Glass as choreography and collaborative process\n## Art and craft: form vs. function\n## Cultural identity and critical trends since the 1980s\n## Pre-Columbian metates and visual translation in glass","[{\"question\":\"Why did Isabel De Obaldía shift to glass, and how did it fit her artistic vision?\",\"answer\":\"After taking a course at Pilchuck Glass Studio, she found glass uniquely compatible with her sensibility. The medium combines control and improvisation, likened to choreography where each person has a role.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the metate series connect pre-Columbian forms to contemporary themes?\",\"answer\":\"The sculptures are based on pre-Columbian metates and preserve their silhouettes, materials, and motifs. Through translucent cast glass, they translate animal and human imagery into a modern visual language tied to cultural continuity.\"},{\"question\":\"What key issues does the essay raise about art and craft?\",\"answer\":\"It questions the relationship between art and craft by examining the liminal space between form and function. Even when her metates are not functional, the form remains historically meaningful to indigenous communities.\"}]","Isabel De Obaldía: Crafting Culture | PDF",1787223040,86,{"code":4,"msg":32,"data":33},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":34,"title":13,"keywords":35,"description":14,"schema_data":36,"social_meta":87,"head_meta":89,"extra_data":91,"updated_unix":29},"isabel-de-obaldia-crafting-culture","",{"@graph":37,"@context":86},[38,54,69],{"@type":39,"itemListElement":40},"BreadcrumbList",[41,45,48,51],{"item":42,"name":43,"@type":44,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":46,"name":47,"@type":44,"position":11},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":44,"position":50},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":52,"name":13,"@type":44,"position":53},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/isabel-de-obaldia-crafting-culture/133602/",4,{"url":52,"name":13,"@type":55,"author":56,"headline":13,"publisher":58,"fileFormat":61,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":62,"datePublished":63,"encodingFormat":61,"isAccessibleForFree":64,"interactionStatistic":65},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":57},"Person",{"url":42,"name":59,"@type":60},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-01","2026-08-20",true,{"@type":66,"interactionType":67,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":68},"ViewAction",{"@type":70,"mainEntity":71},"FAQPage",[72,78,82],{"name":73,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":75},"Why did Isabel De Obaldía shift to glass, and how did it fit her artistic vision?","Question",{"text":76,"@type":77},"After taking a course at Pilchuck Glass Studio, she found glass uniquely compatible with her sensibility. The medium combines control and improvisation, likened to choreography where each person has a role.","Answer",{"name":79,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":80},"How does the metate series connect pre-Columbian forms to contemporary themes?",{"text":81,"@type":77},"The sculptures are based on pre-Columbian metates and preserve their silhouettes, materials, and motifs. Through translucent cast glass, they translate animal and human imagery into a modern visual language tied to cultural continuity.",{"name":83,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":84},"What key issues does the essay raise about art and craft?",{"text":85,"@type":77},"It questions the relationship between art and craft by examining the liminal space between form and function. Even when her metates are not functional, the form remains historically meaningful to indigenous communities.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":52,"og:type":88,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":59,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":90,"canonical":52},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":25},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":93},[94,98,101,105,109,114,119,124,129,132,136],{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":95,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":97},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},80,"literature",{"id":53,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":106,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":110,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":120,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":122,"slug":123},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":126,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":128},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":130,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":131},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":133,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":134,"show_sort_weight":133,"slug":135},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":137,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":138,"show_sort_weight":20,"slug":139},19,"General","general"]