Painter and sculptor · 1938-present
Painter and sculptor
Maribel Nazco, the name used by María Isabel Nazco Hernández, is a painter and sculptor born in Los Llanos de Aridane, La Palma, in 1938. Her work is associated with abstraction, material research and Fine Arts teaching.
The CAAM's institutional chronology places her early artistic studies in Madrid: in 1963 she qualified as a drawing teacher at the Escuela Central de Bellas Artes. She later earned a Fine Arts degree from the University of La Laguna in 1980 and a doctorate in 1986. This combination of practice and training explains a career sustained in both the studio and the university.
In 1963 she joined the group Nuestro Arte, a reference point for Canarian cultural renewal in the 1960s. Her individual exhibition Humanizar la máquina, held at the Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1969, is included in the chronology recorded by the CAAM. The Government of the Canary Islands identifies a persistent investigation of materials and techniques in her work, highlighting in particular her metal work and sculptural painting.
Nazco was a professor and chair of Pictorial Procedures and Techniques at the University of La Laguna's Faculty of Fine Arts, where she also served as dean. In 2021 she received the Canary Islands Prize for Fine Arts and Performance; the awarding decree recognises her contribution to abstract art in the islands, her early involvement in avant-garde groups and her teaching.
