Sofía Bengolea

Sofía Bengolea is an Argentine visual artist and ceramicist. Her work centres on the botanical world: flowers, leaves and organic forms that emerge from the meeting of observed images and an inner imaginary. She works with acrylic paint, watercolour pencils, stoneware and earthenware, exploring how a single motif can change through different materials and processes. She incorporated ceramics into her practice around a decade ago. For her, clay is a process of concentration and meditation: in stoneware she combines glazes and welcomes the kiln’s unexpected reactions; in earthenware she applies pigments like paint, seeking subtle, organic finishes that retain the sensitivity of watercolour. In recent years, she has consolidated a language in which painting and ceramics inform one another through the observation of nature.

She began her artistic training at seventeen in Rebeca Mendoza’s studio, where she studied for three years. She subsequently spent two years studying Visual Arts at IUNA and completed her degree at Universidad del Museo Social Argentino (UMSA), while continuing her training in the studios of Bernardo Ezcurra and Paola Vega. Her career includes exhibitions in San Isidro, art fairs and group shows, as well as a First Prize in an open-technique competition at Espacio 10 and a Second Encouragement Prize in connection with BADA at Espacio Pilar. In 2011 she participated as a guest artist in an exhibition in Bajo de San Isidro, and in 2017 she was among the young generation presented at BADA.