Virginia Patrone

Who is Virginia Patrone?

Virginia Patrone was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1950, where she lived and worked before moving to Spain in 2003.

In 1971 Patrone began her studies as an architect in the Faculty of Architecture, in the Universidad Mayor de la República, Uruguay's National University. In 1978 she turned to painting, studying until 1981 in the Studio of Pepe Montes. Montes himself had trained in the studio of the renowned Montevideo artist Joaquín Torres García.

Patrone is a founding member of the Buenaventura Studio, established in 1989 with the artists Carlos Musso, Carlos Seveso, and Álvaro Pemper. She has also taught courses at and was invited to the School of Fine Arts at Montevideo's Universidad Mayor de la República, New York's Museum of Modern Art, the State University of New York and educational programs in museums in Barcelona and Madrid.

In 1988 Patrone obtained a Fulbright Grant. She won First Prize at the 1986 City Hall Fine Arts Showroom in Montevideo, and at the 1996 Uruguayan Republic Bank's Century Painting Showroom. She was also awarded prizes for excellence in painting at the 1987 National Association of Communications Painting Showroom and for Drawing at the Uruguayan Republic Bank Art Hall in 1987 and 1988. She has had solo exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Tokyo in 1990 and the State University of New York. Her work is featured in the collections of the Inter-American Development Bank, National Museum of Visual Arts, the Juan Manuel Blanes Fine Arts Museum, the Uruguayan Republic Bank Art Hall, the City Hall Museum of San Fernando and the American Art Museum.