Rosa Tavarez

Rosa Tavarez is a Dominican painter and engraver.

Rosa Tavarez was born in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic on April 27, 1939. Rosa began her studies in drawing and painting with Master Yoryi Morel at the School of Fine Arts of Santiago, continuing in Santo Domingo at the National School of Fine Art under professors including Jaime Colson, Celeste Woss and Gil Gilberto Hernandez Ortega; she graduated Professor of Fine Arts in early 1969. From 1971 to 1979, Rosa Tavarez studied printmaking at the Art Students League of New York. In 1979 she studied Artisan Design in Popayán, Colombia. In 1989, she finished a training workshop on Art and Anthropology, taught by Dr. Jose Alcina Franch, at the Dominican Museum of the Man. In 2004 she concluded a Post-Graduate Course in Cultural Management at the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD).

Tavarez has taught for 35 years as Director, Professor of Drawing, Professor of Graphic Arts and Professor of Painting at the National School of Fine Arts, the School of Fine Arts of Santiago, the School of Fine Arts of San Francisco de Macorís, and the School of Fine Arts of Baní. In 1973, she founded the Printmaking Workshop of the National School of Fine Arts. She also taught at private institutions such as APEC University where she taught graphic arts (1970–1977), the School of Design at Altos de Chavon affiliated with Parsons, the New School for Design, and the University of Mexico UNAM, where she taught Graphic Arts and Psychology of the Art from 1983 to 1988.

Since 1975 she has been exhibiting her works nationally and internationally at museums and galleries. Among the most important were the exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in Santo Domingo in 1982 (The Idols) and 2001 (Echoes of the Ecological Cry); the 1993 Series Wounded Geometry; Enigmas, prints and drawings exhibited at the Museum of Art and History of San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1988. She has also participated in important international exhibitions such as the Museum of Printmaking in Italy.

Tavarez has received numerous prizes, awards and distinctions, including the Medal of Merit awarded in 1994 by the President of the Dominican Republic and the General Ministry for the Promotion of Women. The Medal of Merit was awarded for her 35 years of teaching by the President of the Dominican Republic, Dr. Leonel Fernández, in 2005. A Recognition for her Contribution to Education and the Arts was given to her by the Universidad Ibero-Americana (UNIBE) in 2007. In 2009, the Congress of the Dominican Republic dedicated the fifth floor of its building to the artworks of Rosa Tavarez.

Tavarez's artworks are shown at museums, art galleries and permanent collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art in Santo Domingo, Casa de Las Americas in Havana, Cuba, The Housatonic Museum of Art in Connecticut, the Gallery of the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington DC, and the Museums of Modern Art in London, Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela.

Rosa Tavarez has directed the Dominican Association of Plastic Artists from 2000 to 2003. In 2000, she founded the House of Engraving, a center specializing in research, rescue, protection, motivation and projection of the engraving and the print media. She is a member of the Dominican School of Artists, the International Association of Artists AIAAP, and the International Council of Museums (ICOM).

• 1975 – Engravings and Drawings, Casa de Teatro, Santo Domingo, DR.
• 1977 – Engravings, Enrique de Echandi Gallery, San José, Costa Rica.
• 1982 – The Idols, Engraving Exhibition, Gallery of Modern Art, Santo Domingo, DR.
• 1984 – The Masks, Nader Art Gallery, Santo Domingo, DR.
• 1986 – Ancestors, Convention Palace, La Habana, Cuba.
• 1988 – Enigmas I, Museum of Art and History, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
• 1988 – Recent Engravings, Hostos Community College Gallery, New York, USA.
• 1989 – Enigmas II, Arawak Art Gallery, Santo Domingo, DR.
• 1993 – Wounded Geometry IV, Palace Hall, Santiago de los Caballeros, DR.
• 1993 – Wounded Geometry III, Gallery of Altos de Chavon, La Romana, DR.
• 1993 – Wounded Geometry II, La Galería, Santo Domingo, DR.
• 1993 – Wounded Geometry I, Casa de Bastidas Museum, Santo Domingo, DR.
• 1995 – Rosa Tavarez, Recent Artworks, Catholic University, Santiago de Chile.
• 1998 – Travelling Expo of Ibero-American Engraving, Main Museums of Brazil.
• 2001 - Echoes of the Ecological Cry, Manuel del Cabral Foundation – Museum of Modern Art, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

In Dominican Republic, United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Egypt, Spain, England, Italy, France, Taiwan and Iraq.

• 1976 – Latin-American Graphic Actuality, Inter-American Development Bank, International Hall, Palace of Fine Arts, Mexico, DF.
• 1977 - Francisco Amighetti Contest, San Jose, Costa Rica.
• 1978 – Latin-American Plastic Encounter, National Heritage Museum, Havana, Cuba.
• 1980 - 1981- International Engraving Biennial, Iraq Cultural Center Cultural, London & Bagdad.
• 1981 – Nine Women, Exposition of the nine most important women in the Caribbean, Paiewonsky Art Gallery, Santo Domingo, DR.
• 1981 – First Latin American Graphic Arts Biennial, Cayman Gallery, New York, EEUU.
• 1982 – FAO Contest, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
• 1989 – Ouvres sur Papier, Haiti.
• 1992- Three Artists from Dominican Republic in Panama, Panama City.
• 1994 – First Collective of Master Painting, Hotel Hamaca, Santo Domingo, DR.
• 1994 – Ecological Dialogue – San Juan Bautista Gallery, City Hall of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
• 1994 – Dominican Masters, Washington DC, USA.
• 1995 – Five Dominican Artists in Peru, Bolkas Gallery, Lima, Peru.
• 1996 – Exposition Conjointe de Peintures Dominico-Haïtienne, Centre Albert, Brussels, Belgium.
• 1996 – 15 Peintres Dominicains, La Maison de L’Amerique Latine, Paris, France.
• 1996 – Masterpieces of Dominican Painting, Carib Art Gallery, New York, USA.
• 1998 – Gravura Ibero-Americana, Associacao de Adidos Culturais Dos Países Iberoamericanos, Brasil .
• 1999 – Artists of the Hispanic Caribbean, Inner, Center of Arts, Coral Gables, Miami, Florida.
• 1999 – Contemporary Dominican Art, Nader Art Gallery, Santo Domingo, DR.
• 2000 – Women in the Caribbean Memory, Art Museum of the Americas, OAS, Washington, DC.
• 2000 – Venezuela Aid 2000, International Arts Auction, Miami, FL, represented by Morgan Stanley Witter along with Sloan Auction Gallery.
• 2002 – Unexplored Labyrinths in Dominican Painting, Casa del Lago, Universidad Nacional Autónoma, UNAM, Mexico.
• 2002 – Caribbean Fantasy and Myths, Mexico.
• 2002 – Border Symbols, Palace of Fine Arts, Mexico.
• 2003 – Encounter of Two Cultures, Zulug Art Gallery, Mexico.
• 2003 – Twelve Latin-American Painters in Occasion of the Dominican Independence, Zulug Art Gallery, Mexico.
• 2004 – 9th Cairo International Biennale, El Cairo, Egipt.
• 2004 – International Art Expo, FUNGLODE, Casa de Campo, La Romana, DR.
• 2004 – Metaphors over Paper, Casa de Teatro, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
• 2005 - Center of Latin-American Studies Foundation Rómulo Gallegos Celarg, Venezuela.
• 2006 – Collective Exposition of National Artists, Ministry of Culture, Santo Domingo, DR.
• 2008 – Unlimited - Rosa Tavárez & Elsa Nuñez, Alinka Contemporary Art, Santo Domingo DR.
• 2009 – Tribute to Marianela Jimenez, 7th Show of Dominican Painting, Ministry of Culture, Santo Domingo, DR.
• 2010 – Three Generations, San Ramón Art Gallery, Santo Domingo, DR.
• 2010 – Entre Mythes et Réalités, Fundación Clement, Martinique.
• 2011 – Beyond the Encounter, Rio Gallery, New York, USA.

• 2009 – Special guest at the VI Biennial of Masters of the Graphic Arts, L’Arte e il Torchio, Cremona, Italy.
• 1994 – Latin American Art Biennial, Visions over Paper, The Housatonic Museum of Art, Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA.
• 1993 – International Biennial of Painting, Cuenca, Ecuador.
• 1990 – E. Leon Jimenez Biennial, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.