El Canal (CRI)
German-born Ursula Neubauer has lived and worked as a visual artist in Amsterdam since 1983. Her work can be seen in museums in Barcelona, Okinawa and Philadelphia, among others. In 2022, she stayed at ArtCeB (ArtCenter Botopasi) in Suriname. Between December 2024 and April 2025, she worked with Frans Saris in Costa Rica to explore how this small Central American country, about the size of the Netherlands, manages its affairs without an army, taking into account all aspects of political, social and cultural life. For BK Information Neubauer wrote about it.
Our base was the gated community of El Canal, a former coffee plantation near the town of Grecia in the Central Valley. From our apartment we had an expansive view of tropical trees, coffee and sugar plantations.
With the windows open, we could admire the birds during the day and the star-filled sky at night. Here in El Canal, I had my sources of inspiration and art materials right on my doorstep: I could work ín nature with nature. Moreover, it was the perfect base from which to explore the capital city of San Jose and traverse the country on shorter and longer trips. For the past nine years, I worked with Frans Saris, natural scientist and essayist, resulting in art projects in the Netherlands and art books on Namibia and Suriname. Our Costa Rican experiences will be compiled into an art book with texts and images*.
A chance meeting with multi-talented Heriberto Gomes, art dealer, broker, art commentator, painter and installation artist, was the main impetus for my thorough research into the Costa Rican art scene. At first glance, the Ticos (as Costa Ricans call themselves) appeared to have a lack of interest in art and their artists. Also judging from the low attendance at almost all exhibitions in the country, with the exception of San Jose's thriving new Civic Center. Far fewer visitors attracted the very interesting Museo Nacional de Costa Rica, housed in a former military fort and prison, and the Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo in a former distillery. The same goes for the beautiful Museo Calderón Guardia in San Jose, which exhibits contemporary Costa Rican artists. A general lack of interest in art and living artists I also deduced from the often missing nameplates on public sculptures, the most glaring omission of which is in Puerto Limón.
The impressive multiethnic monument commemorates the banana railroad built by Jamaican immigrants, connecting the Caribbean to the Pacific coast. A large plaque under the monument does mention the city's president and mayor, who commissioned the work in 2010, but nowhere the artist's name. Despite numerous art academies, excellent art departments at universities and training centers, courses in arts and crafts at cultural centers and schoolchildren being taken to museums, there does not (yet) seem to be a larger audience interested in art. There is undoubtedly a thriving artist community: well-educated, with international roots and an international outlook, dealing with the same issues you find elsewhere in the world, such as historical, political, social, environmental and climate issues.
How do artists survive? How can this gap between the disinterested public and the highly educated artists and art historians be bridged?
Robert Wesson made clear why he opens his studio to the public every day from 9 to 6
On a trip to Monteverde - famous for its national parks and wildlife, but also for its artists - we visited Santa Elena and Monteverde studios and galleries. Many art and craft galleries are full of the same items aimed at mass tourism, outlets with painted wood carvings, ceramics and T-shirts. Even CASEM, a cooperative of Santa Elena and Monteverde artisans founded by local women, suffers from abundant repetition. Through a private information center, we were directed to "their best and most favorite artist" in the area, Robert Wesson and his Jaguar art gallery in Monteverde, tucked away in the forest, in a round studio hut. A magical place created by this energetic, confident and prolific artist. At a huge round table, lit from above by glass windows, he showed us stacks of acrylic paintings on unstretched canvas, from abstract to impressionist, from geometric to surreal. Robert Wesson made it clear why he opens his studio to the public every day from 9 to 6: He wants to sell his art and earn a living for his family. He owns the buildings and plot of his home and work. He puts his talent, his training as a painter (in San Jose) and his art at the service of his customers, weighing their tastes, the price they can pay and the locations where the work should hang. When a client from the US or Europe arrives, the chosen painting can be rolled up and taken away immediately. In answer to our pedantic question of whether he doesn't balance on the fine line between art and kitsch: he had long since left it behind. 'Pura vida,' the widely used Costa Rican expression for greeting and well-being, is fully applicable to Robert Wesson. It refers to a lifestyle of ease, emphasizing living in the here and now.
While visiting the Museo de Arte Costarricense, located in San Jose's former first international airport, we came across Francisco Zuñiga's murals and sculptures, which had a huge influence on Latin American artists. Born in Costa Rica and educated in Costa Rica and Mexico, where he lived from 1936 until his death in 1988, his work can be seen in many national and international public spaces. Elements of French and German sculpture from the early twentieth century, Mexican political art and pre-Columbian stonemasonry can be found in his work.
Despite his international reputation, González's work was nowhere to be found on the Caribbean coast
Intrigued by a drawing by Rudy Espinoza, highlighted in the same museum as artist of the month, we came to the gallery representing him: Conarte, restoration studio and gallery for mostly contemporary art. Tucked away in a suburb of San Jose, was a beautiful, spacious workshop with finished, restored paintings on the walls and work in progress on the tables. Among the exceptional works of art on the brightly lit upper floor, one painter caught our particular attention: Leonel González (who died in 2013), characterized by bright colors and voluminous Caribbean female figures. Despite his international reputation, González's work was nowhere to be found on the Caribbean coast. Typically, all major art institutions are concentrated in and around the capital.
In Heredia, an old aristocratic town also in the Central Valley with campuses of two major state universities and the birthplace of many Costa Rican presidents, we expected excellent galleries. But the city seemed more focused on the history of its famous sons, its coffee plantations and on the well-being of its residents than on art. The Centro Cultural Herediano Omar Dongo, located in a renovated old high school building, offered a painting course, ballet for girls and Latin American dance, in addition to a course for men to revise their masculine image, clearly with a social function, aimed at changing their macho (violent) behavior. But the cultural center's many halls, ideal exhibition spaces, were empty during our three visits.
A huge mural illustrated Costa Rican history
The Museo Municipal de Cartago, the former capital of Costa Rica, transformed a 1910 prison into a free cultural center with the mission of preserving Costa Rica's cultural and historical heritage and promoting art, music and other cultural expressions. A huge mural illustrated Costa Rican history. Two temporary exhibitions highlighted contemporary approaches to sculpture, installations and graphic art. The first was excellent and dealt with political, social and environmental issues; the second was rather well behaved and uninspiring.
Gradually, I had to revise my view of the Costa Rican art scene. I began to see a ubiquitous art category in public spaces that I had been ignoring: murals and graffiti with great technical knowledge and expressive appeal, enriching both poor and affluent neighborhoods.
With an eye toward inclusion and aiming for a wider audience, Carlos Fernández chose to address mural issues. He is affiliated with Teor/ética, a private organization founded by the late artist and researcher Virginia Pérez-Ratton. Of all the art centers we visited, this one takes the most ambitious stance in search of bridging the gap between citizens and art, between art practice and the reality of everyday life. In two beautiful old buildings, Teor/ética offers open work and exhibition spaces to central American artists working on ethical, environmental and political issues. It publishes research articles, catalogs and books, and organizes competitions, conferences and lectures, all open to the public. The interior and exterior walls of this art center are used as carriers of their messages. By pushing for more international cooperation, Teor/ética contributes to peace and mutual understanding. The Netherlands is also one of the countries with which Teor/ética maintains ties, such as with the organizations DOEN.nl and framerframed.co.uk.
For me as a Dutch artist, undoubtedly nature itself was Costa Rica's greatest attraction, its biodiversity and the successful government encouragement to return the plantations to wilderness. My inspiration was the overwhelming beauty and richness of nature.
* Frans Saris died suddenly of sepsis on June 29, 2025, three months after our stay in Costa Rica. I have meanwhile, in his spirit, incorporated his short stories and our shared visual material into the book we have planned In Search of Harmony/ In the Land Without Military, which will be published in spring 2026.
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