Christian Porras

Costa Rica, b.1979

Lives and works in Liberia, Costa Rica

Available Sold CV Commission

Christian Porras is a multifaceted Costa Rican artist who, aside from being a visual artist, is also a composer, vocalist, and musician. His work is deeply rooted in the cultural heritage of Costa Rica, particularly his home region of Guanacaste.

Porras’ distinctive abstract style is an interplay of full, curved forms outlined by billowing lines, capturing the dynamic essence of the Costa Rican landscape. Music is Porras’ main source of inspiration as he works to create a relationship between his songs and his paintings. Porras translates his song lyrics, which describe places, landscapes, and characters, into paintings with their own language of reduced, bold, block colours that have been applied using ovoids (oblong shapes) to craft elliptical brushstrokes reminiscent of fingerprints. This technique allows Porras to blend elements of the natural world, from rivers and trees to beaches, while incorporating human figures that harmoniously fuse into their surroundings and embody the artist’s sense of musicality, rhythm and movement.

“My themes come from the visual environment; the landscape as a stage, resting on the horizon”, describes Porras. “Sometimes a protagonist appears, reflecting the daily life of the common person in a Latin American context.”

Having exhibited widely across Costa Rica, Porras’ work has been showcased at the Museo de Guanacaste in Liberia and the Festival Nacional de las Arte 2021 in Puntarenas, among others, which reflects his contribution to the Costa Rican art scene.

Christian Porras in his studio, 2024 (Photography by Adriana Méndez)

"The curved line is a brushstroke, but it is also an object, shape, and silhouette.” Porras, 2024