International Artist Day
International Artist Day & featuring four Costa Rican artists.
At Poas, we like to showcase local treasures — whether it be natural beauty or talent. For International Artist Day, we’re spotlighting Costa Rican artists and their art.
The earliest examples of the country’s creativity are evidenced in the indigenous gold and jade figures that can be viewed in the respective Jade and Gold Museums in San José, the Boruca indigenous masks which are still created to this day, and more humble craft work from the brightly colored oxcart wheels to leather and clay artisanal works.
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Conventional art began with naïvely painted scenes of typical adobe homes set in rustic surroundings. Later, this was explored and challenged by the New Sensibility movement to bring more realism to the idealized style and depictions with artists such as Teodorico Quiros Alvarado.
The influence of U.S. and European artistic fashions are clear in the works of painters like Manuel de la Cruz who famously embraced cubism, and Francisco Amighetti, who abandoned his classical training to experiment in a broad range of different artistic expressions.
Today, there has been the establishment of a distinctly Latino artistic movement throughout the Americas, and several artists have received international acclaim for their works.
National art is celebrated in the Costa Rican Art Museum which is housed in the former air control tower for the original San Jose International Airport. Four artists that have caught our eye are:
Image courtesy of Pinterest
Image courtesy of La Republica
Isidro Con Wong’s magic realist works are distinguished by their colorful depictions of cattle and pastoral landscapes, which depict the artist’s early life when the self-taught artist painted with homemade colors from ground berries and leaves. The son of Chinese immigrants, he was born in Costa Rica and denied a career as an artist by his father, finally embracing an artistic life at the age of forty. Since then, his works have been prolific, and he is a noted name in the art world at the age of eighty-six.
Image courtesy of La Nacion
Greivin Ureña combines the traditional Japanese art of origami with his surrealist-inspired painting to emerge as one of the rising stars of the Costa Rican art world. His paper animals are incorporated into his art as an expression of the dreams of children and young people for a new breath of life into both art forms.
Image courtesy of Judy Glazer
Image courtesy of La Nacion
The sculptures of Jorge Jiménez Deredia have been greatly influenced by his scholarship to study art in Italy in his youth, and he is honored as the only Latin American sculptor asked to provide a statue for St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City. His huge, rounded forms often depict women and are displayed in the center of San Jose and the gardens of the Museum of Costa Rican Art in La Sabana Park.
Image courtesy of Dan Mora
The hobby of comic book collecting has not been popular in Costa Rica (probably due to the humidity), but the superhero influence is evident here. Our featured artist, Dan Mora, is the genius behind the chilling illustrations for our Costa Rican folktale series of blog posts. His depictions of the nightmarish beasts that have terrified children (and adults) for generations of fireside storytelling are just one example of his artistic talent.
Born and raised in Costa Rica, Dan has been drawing since his earliest memories, continuing onward through school and university. He doesn’t have a conscious style, but combines his experiences with an amalgamation of influences from artists that inspire him. Most notably are his admiration for Bruce Timm and Jim Lee where glimpses shines through in his own work. Dan works for Boom!, Marvel and DC Comics on the production of comics and covers, having illustrated for author, Michael Alan Nelson’s Hexed series, Grant Morrison and other comic book writers. He is currently working on the Power Rangers comic, a Klaus Christmas Special and as cover artist for Batgirl, Teen Titans, Daredevil, and X-men Gold. Unsurprisingly, he loves his work, believing that like watching a movie, comics allow an audience to escape their normal daily routine.
Visitors are drawn to Costa Rica by its incredible biodiversity and natural resources, but the vibrant culture and energetic art world should not be overlooked.
