Jaime Suárez, born in Puerto Rico in 1946, is one of the most important figures in the development of contemporary ceramics in Puerto Rico. He studied architecture at the Catholic University in Washington, D.C., and obtained a master’s degree in Urban Design at Columbia University, New York.
He co-founded Galería Manos and Casa Candina in the late 70’s early 80’s two artists collective ventures which were instrumental in establishing the ceramic medium as one of the principal artistic movements on the island.
Jaime Suárez has exhibited in Brazil, Cuba, Venezuela, New York, New Mexico, Colombia, Italy, France, Japan, Korea, and Greece. He has been awarded prizes in international ceramic exhibitions and competitions in Faenza, Italy, and Zagreb, Croatia, and his work is included in prestigious international collections in Europe, Asia, the United States, and Latin America.
He is the creator of Tótem Telúrico in Old San Juan the 5th Centennial Monument of the Discovery of America and various other public sculptures and murals recognized for the integration of art to architecture and public spaces. Amongst his contribution to the ceramic medium Is his development of clay prints and the use of clay as a pigment as can be seen in his monumental installation, Galería de las Tierras, (2004) done for the Kennedy Center in Washington DC and now on exhibit in the permanent collection of the Museum of Puerto Rican Art in San Juan.
Three themes have permeated the extensive body of work he has developed during the last fifty years. Clay as the earth itself in eroded landscape and topographies; architectural ruins in clay as man’s construction over the landscape; and objects that evoke ritual which connect his work to millenary traditions. "In my works, I deal with the themes of time, nature, and man as agents of destruction: destruction as a means of construction, the ephemeral nature of all creation and existence. The search for textures that evoke the passage of time, a present already archaelogical is the recurrent theme that binds it together."