Zilia Sánchez

Zilia Sánchez’s work is characterized by her distinctive approach to formal abstraction through the use of undulating silhouettes, a muted color palette, and a unique, sensual vocabulary. She is primarily recognized for her shaped canvases, first created in Havana in the 1950s and further developed while living in Havana, New York City, and Madrid.  Sánchez’s signature style consists of stretching canvas over hand-molded wooden armatures and painting them with acrylic. Over her 65-year career, Sánchez has explored the juxtapositions between the feminine and the masculine, the painterly and the sculptural, the personal and the universal, the exterior body and the interior self. The reduced color palettes in her compositions, as well as the serial processes she employs, connect her to Minimalism, though the sensuality and embrace of the curve in her work bear witness to the distinctive language Sánchez has developed.

In 2017, her work was included in the 57th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, VIVA ARTE VIVA, curated by Christine Macel, and in 2024 was included in the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Stranieri Ovunque - Foreigners Everywhere, curated by Adriano Pedrosa. In 2019, Soy Isla, a major solo exhibition of Sánchez’s work, was presented at