"Every day I see majesty: rolling hills, big skies, long views, and jade-green rivers. Where I live, Nature is still unmarred by modern footprint, and its beauty takes my breath away. My paintings are about that."
Sylvia Benitez is an artist and curator who spent her formative art years in NYC. Now living outside Seguin, she teaches landscape painting in San Antonio, TX. Benitez is a recognized installation artist and painter-the recipient of many national awards, including two MacDowell Colony Residencies; two Pollock Krasner awards; An Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Individual Support Grant; an AICA award; and Two National Endowment for the Arts Visiting Artist Fellowships.
Represented by the Hunt Gallery in San Antonio, TX. and now the Slate Gray Gallery in Telluride, CO. Benitez's work can be found in many private and public collections. Benitez is president and founder of The Gentileschi Aegis Gallery Association-GAGA- a 10-year-old 501©(3) nonprofit that has served over 100 women artists from south Texas since its inception, and which boasts today an active membership of over 70 women artists. Benitez has curated more than 30 thematic GAGA exhibitions, many of which have been all-member shows.
NOTABLE ARTIST RESIDENCIES
• 1999 Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
• 1993 Ucross
• 1985 MacDowell Colony
• 1984 MacDowell Colony
• 1984 Yaddo
AWARDS
2022 Artist of the Year, San Antonio Art League and Museum
2011 Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Individual Support Grant
2008 National Endowment for the Arts Visiting Artist Fellowship
2001 National Endowment for the Arts Visiting Artist Fellowship
2000 Pollock Krasner Award
1997 Pollock Krasner Award
1997 AICA award
Solo Exhibitions
2023 Wally Workman Gallery, Austin TX/Dec
2023 Slate Gray Gallery, Telluride CO, June
Recent Solo Painting Exhibitions (not including commercial gallery exhibits)
2022 San Antonio Art League, Artist of the Year Solo Exhibition Award
2021 The Carver Community Cultural Center, Hiding Places, Andrew Gorden, curator TX
2019 The Dougherty Center, Recalling Memory, Anne Davieaux, curator Austin TX
2016 South Texas College, Personal Topography, Gina Otvos, curator, McAllen, TX
2013 Beeville Art Museum, Artist Name, Tracy Saucier, curator, Beeville, TX
2013 Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts, Linda Cullum, curator, Lubbock TX
2010 Rockport Center for the Arts, Rockport TX, Still the Land, John Aasp, curator, Rockport, TX
2009 Mitte Gallery, Texas State University, Where Meets the Sea, Mary Mikel Stump, curator, San Marcos TX