An artist and academic, Tecla Tofano’s multidisciplinary career is of fundamental importance for the Venezuelan culture of the 20th century. Better known as a ceramist, she also devotes herself to drawing, goldsmithing and writing, as well as being a militant feminist in the socialist movement. Her career can be divided into two phases: in the first one (1955-‘63) Tofano produces utilitarian ceramics; in the second one(1964-‘77) she works in non-traditional ways, giving ceramics its own sculptural autonomy, departing from the conventional idea of beauty and attracted by the dimension of ugliness. Her objects, characterised by humorous and often grotesque shapes, represent consumer culture, bourgeois values and gender stereotypes.
