Gaspar Mario Cruz, Sculptor

Gaspar Mario Cruz was born December 6, 1929 in San Francisco de Macoris, and died on September 8, 2006.

At an early age he begins to produce figures of religious saints with modeling clay, and during his teens years he begins to explore Woodcarving.

In 1948 he moves to Santo Domingo and enrolls in the National School of Fine Arts, under the direct guidance of the Spanish born artist and sculptor, Manolo Pascual.

In 1956, Cruz won the First Prize for Sculpture at the VIII Biennial of Art with his work Llanto de Baquiní”.

In 1957, he joins the faculty of the National Fine Arts School, and the following year wins First Prize for Sculpture at the IX Bienal again with his work titled "Amantes”," which he carved on mahogany wood.

Gaspar Mario Cruz's works have been exhibited worldwide, including such cities as Barcelona, Sao Paulo, Paris, London, Madrid and New York.

In 1968, he joins the newly founded group PROYECTA with an allstar group of artist, which includes Ada Balcácer, Domingo Liz, Fernando Peña Defillo, Félix Gontier and Thimo Pimentel.

In 1985, as President of the Colegio Dominicano de Artistas Plásticos, he organized the First Latin American Symposium of Sculpture in the Gallery of Modern Art in Santo Domingo. In this event he is joined by international artists like Nancy Craves (USA), Stuart Maldonado (Ecuador), Pablo Rubio (Puerto Rico) and art critics such as Luis Gonzalez Robles (Spain), Gaston Diehl (France), Raquel Tibol (Mexico) and Belgium Rodriguez (Venezuela), among others.