Controversial Costa Rican Artwork will be on Display at the Galeria Nacional in San Jose.

On July 8, the rooms of the Galería Nacional, housed in San José’s Children’s Museum, filled up with artwork from 53 Costa Rican artists. The works are meant to spark conversation and debate on the current path of Costa Rica Art, and do so by challenging art lovers with unique, thought-provoking works.

The show, aptly named II Confrontación en el arte (Confrontation in Art), is in its second showing. This year’s version of Confrontación, unlike its 2003 forefather, nominated curators from different fields, therefore creating a better organized and more exhaustive list of artist. The resulting participants, and their artwork and artistic pieces, were chosen by four renowned Costa Rican curators, and show a diversity of mediums, ranging from painting and photography, to audiovisual and installation art.

The four chosen curators — Elizabeth Barquero, Herbert Bolaños, Luis Fernando Quirós and Manuel Vargas — designed their own list of artists, each of whom is considered an emerging talent in his or her field. With such cutting-edge artists, the object of this year’s exhibition is to create a graphic thermometer that represents the artistic tendencies of Costa Rican artists. All four art experts expressed concern over excluding a deserving artist, explaining that their job in choosing was very difficult this year.

“The idea is to demonstrated that painting continues to live. It is a very varied panorama, showing everything from works that encourage reflexion to those that are merely for sensory enjoyment,” said the curator in charge of selecting the best representations of Costa Rican pictorial art, Elizabeth Barquero.

Barquero also noted that, though most of her selected artists are very diverse, they are all characterized by their dominance in the field of pictorial art, and their willingness to take artistic risks. “They assume the creative act with great discipline and responsibility. We’re interested in those works that generate a profound impact for the spectator,” Barquero finished.

“My selection covers artists from recognized paths, like Olger Villegas, José Sancho and Crisanto Badilla, to new artists with very innovative projects, like Marielos Miranda, Tzeitel Hernández or André Cañas,” the curator for Costa Rican sculpture, Manuel Vargas, explained. As if explaining his words through their art, Vargas’s chosen sculptors maintain a constant commitment to constantly evolve, while always defending open creativity.

Luis Fernando Quirós, who chose fourteen artists from the fields of photography, installation art, objective art, and audiovisual art, believes that confrontation is a way of making the spectator “uncomfortable,” provoking thought through challenging pieces. “They are works that subscribe themselves to certain limits that can be dangerous, that can surprise. These pieces could be or not be works of art according to the context you put them in. I like the idea of taking one outside his comfort zone,” Quirós confirmed.

With such diverse works and provocative statements, its obvious that every art lover should make it to the Galería Nacional’s current exhibition to witness the History of Costa Rica art in the making. The Second Confrontation will be open until the end of July.

Photo courtesy of La Nacion.

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Filed under: Living on July 10th, 2008