Isabel De Obaldía was born in Washington D.C. in 1957 of French and Panamanian parents. She studied architecture at the University of Panama and drawing at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris before receiving a BFA in Graphic Design and Cinematography from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1979. She has frequently attended The Pilchuck Glass School since 1987, where she has studied engraving and glass casting and has served as an International Council Member. In 1990 she received the John Hauberg Fellowship from Pilchuck.
De Obaldía has been selected on several occasions to participate as a guest artist in international painting, sculpture and glass symposia as well as survey shows of contemporary art. In 2002 she taught kiln casting at the Real Fábrica de Cristales de La Granja in San Idelfonso, Spain. She returned to La Granja as an artist in residence in 2003 and in the same year had solo exhibitions at the Museo de Arte en Vidrio de Alcorcón in Madrid and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Panama. In 2006, she completed a fellowship at the Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center in Millville, NJ and returned there in 2007 and 2008 to cast large-scale works which are then shipped to Panama for polishing and engraving. She lives and works in Panama. This is her fifth one-person show at Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art, where she has exhibited since 1997.
2008 Unearthed, Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art, New York
2007 Prehistórica, Mateo Sariel Galería, Panama
2004 New Work, 2004, Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art, New York
2003 Transfigurations, Museo de Arte en Vidrio de Alcorcón, Madrid, Spain
2003 Fragments of Warriors, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Panama
2001 Torsos, New York, NY (Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art)
2001 "The ADAA Art Show," New York, NY (Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art)
2001 "Art Miami," Miami Beach, FL (Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art)
2001 "Art Palm Beach," West Palm Beach, FL (Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art)
2000 "The ADAA Art Show," New York, NY (Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art)
1999 Captive Spirits, Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art, New York
1998 Recent Works, Elite Fine Art, Coral Gables, FL
1997 Beasts and Men, Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art, New York
1997 Obras Recientes, oleos y dibujos, Galería Arteconsult, Panama
1996 Recent Works, Elite Fine Art, Coral Gables, FL
1995 Centro Wifredo Lam, Havana, Cuba
1994 Los Conjuros del Silencio, Galería Museum, Panama
1993 Vidrios, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Panama
1990 Los Veedores, Galería Arteconsult, Panama
1989 Maniobras, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Panama
1986 Marina y los amigos de Selba, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Panama
1985 Galería Arteconsult, Panama
1981 Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Panama
1980 Galería Arteconsult, Panama
1978 Galería El Sotano de Panarte, Panama
1977 Galería Etcétera, Panama
1997-04 The ADAA Art Show, New York, NY (Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art)
2004 A Woman's Touch, Museum of Latin American Art, CA
2002-03 Art Basel/Miami Beach, FL (Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art)
2003 VIII International Glass Symposium, Crystalex, Novy Bor, Czech Republic
2003 Contemporary Art from Panama, Maison de l'Amerique Latine de Monaco
2003 In-Tangible, Museo de arte y diseño, San José, Costa Rica
2002 Galeria Lucia de la Puente, Lima, Peru
2002 XII Muestra de Pintura y Escultura Latinoamericana, Galeria Espacios, San Salvador
2002 Hildurbook, Pilchuck, WA
2002 From Stone to Foam, Nohra Haime Gallery, New York, NY
2002 Art Istmo, San Jose, Costa Rica
2002 Contemporary Art from Central American Isthmus, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, China
1997-02 Art Miami, Miami Beach, FL (Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art)
2001 A Glass Odyssey, Art on the Cutting Edge, Salem Art Association, Salem, Oregon
2000 Panama Contemporaneo: 15 Artistas Panamenos, Instituto Italo-Latinoamericano,
Rome, Italy;
the exhibition then traveled to the Casa America, Madrid, Spain in 2001
2000 XI Exhibition of Latin American Painting and Sculpture, Galería Espacio, El Salvador
1999 Holding Light: Contemporary Glass Sculpture, Austin Museum of Art, TX, Sept 11-Dec. 31, 1999
1999 FIAC, Paris (Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art)
1999 Glass Art Society International Expo II, Tampa, FL
1999 Mujeres en las Artes, Tegucigalpa, Honduras
1997-9 Art Miami, Miami Beach, FL (Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art)
1998 Crosscurrents, Contemporary Painting from Panama, 1968-1998, Americas Society Art Gallery, New York, May 15 - July 19, 1998; the exhibition then traveled to the Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL, September 10 - November 1, 1998 and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Panamá, December 1, 1998 - January 15, 1999
1998 Primera Bienal de Pintura del Istmo Centroamericano, Guatemala; the exhibition then traveled to the Duke University Museum of Art, Durham, NC
1998 Primera Bienal Internacional de Cumana, Venezuela
1997 Primera Bienal Iberoamericana de Lima, Peru
1996 Venezia Aperto Vetro, Venice, Italy
1996 III Bienal del Caribe y Centroamérica, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
1996 Contemporary Art of Panama, Casa de América, Madrid, Spain
1995 A Woman's View: Equality, Development and Peace, World Bank, Washington, DC
1994 World Glass Now '94, Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Japan
1993 Art Miami '93, Miami, FL
1993 Paintings of the Caribbean and Central America, Museum of the Arts of the Americas, OAS, Washington, DC
1993 Seven Panamanian Artists, Museum of Modern Art, Dominican Republic
1992 I Bienal de Arte Pictórico, Panama (First prize)
1992 Imágen y Ritual, 4 Pintores Panameños, Galería Metropolitana, Quito, Ecuador
1992 I Feria Iberoamericana de Arte, Caracas, Venezuela
1992 I Bienal del Caribe y Centroamérica, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
1991 X Bienal de Valparaíso, Chile
1991 Davidson Gallery, Seattle, WA
1991 Opus Gallery, Miami, FL
1991 Nueva Pintura Bolivariana, Museo La Tertulia, Cali, Colombia
1991 La Generación Emergente, Nagoya, Japan
1989 The Drawing Center, New York, NY
1989 Galería Juan de Juanes, Alicante, Spain
1987 I Bienal Internacional de Pintura Contémporanea, Cuenca, Ecuador
1986 II Bienal de la Habana, Havana, Cuba
1985 Nohra Haime Gallery, New York, NY
1983 VI Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano, Puerto Rico
1978 I Bienal Italo Latinoamericana, Rome, Italy