Salón Nacional 2025 Opens this month with Broad Survey of Costa Rican Visual Practices
The Museo de Arte Costarricense (MAC) in San José has launched the fifth edition of the Salón Nacional de Artes Visuales, continuing its biennial rhythm since its revival in 2017. Held in the museum’s neocolonial building at Parque Metropolitano La Sabana, this year’s show opened on May 22 and features 50 works selected from over 260 submissions across the country.
Organised by the Ministry of Culture and Youth, the Salón is a national open call for artists working in a variety of media. The selection committee - comprised of Esteban Calvo Campos (MAC director), Sofía Villena Araya (curator at the Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo), and independent researcher Luis Fernando Quirós - opted for a range that intentionally resists thematic confinement. The result is a diverse arrangement of materials and approaches, from site-specific installations and conceptual video works to more formalist painting and sculpture.
The Salón has historical roots in the Salones Nacionales de Artes Plásticas, active between 1972 and 1993, but today’s version leans more heavily into experimental modes. Unlike its earlier iterations, which often leaned toward canon formation, the current format favours decentralisation and broader inclusion. While a few well-established names appear on the roster, such as Katrin Aason, much of the show belongs to younger or regionally lesser-known participants, such as Priscilla Romero Cubero. This shift is partly due to the competition’s open structure and the committee’s conscious effort to reflect a wider geographic and methodological scope.
Some of the strongest contributions work between social critique and material investigation. Several pieces address climate and extraction, themes common to the region but approached here with specificity. Others explore the legacy of state violence, often using archival materials or personal narratives. While there’s no unifying curatorial framework, certain recurring motifs, such as displacement, memory, the body, lend cohesion without tipping into uniformity.
Salón Nacional 2025. Some notable inclusions from our artists
Katrin Aason received an Honourable Mention for her piece “S.N 201124”. Katrin creates vibrant woven ribbon works that blend traditional textile dyeing techniques with contemporary geometric abstraction. Drawing on Peruvian and Mexican dye traditions, her pieces explore colour, pattern, and form with bold clarity. It's an exciting time for Katrin as her first U.S. exhibition is currently on view at Craig Krull Gallery in Santa Monica.
Katrin Aason, S.N 201124, Textile composition, walnut and cutch
Jesús Mejía contributes with “Pila Bautismal,” a piece that continues his exploration of social violence and Catholic imagery through bold figurative painting. We love Mejía's work, which is being recognised for its provocative approach that challenges viewers to confront uncomfortable societal issues. We can't wait for his upcoming show at Galería Matices at the Costa Rica Country Club in Escazu next month - stay tuned for more information!
Jesus Mejía, Pila Bautismal, Oil on canvas
Eliecer Rodríguez presents “Asedio” (2025), a work that aligns with his ongoing interest in everyday objects and their shared meanings. Rodríguez is known for questioning environmental, social, and political themes through an expressionist and realistic style, creating contradictions that decontextualize our universe.
Alonso Durán participates with two acrylic paintings, including one piece titled Superficie Tangencial I. Alonso is celebratede for his distinctive fusion of mathematical precision and spontaneous expression, creating works that challenge traditional perceptions of landscape painting.
Ivannia Lasso contribues the piece Iconografía de una Tierra en Lucha. Here, Ivannia continues her exploration of themes related to marginalised territories and environmental degradation, taking found materials from the beaches of Costa Rica's southern Osa Peninsula to construct assemblages that reflect on social and ecological issues.
Ivannia Lasso, Iconografía de una Tierra en Lucha, Mixed media
Installation-wise, the museum has adapted its interior to accommodate works that challenge conventional gallery display. There is a noticeable effort to balance accessibility with conceptual rigour, a strategy the curators say was key to their selection.
Educational programming accompanies the exhibition, with guided tours and workshops available to school groups and the general public. Admission is free, a feature the museum emphasises as part of its public mandate. The show runs through the summer, offering ample opportunity for repeat visits.
If previous editions of the Salón leaned into cautious institutionalism, the 2025 edition signals a shift. Without overreaching, the exhibition puts forward a cross-section of visual practices currently shaping discourse in Costa Rica. While uneven in places, as open calls often are, it succeeds in its broader ambition: offering a platform that acknowledges variation without insisting on cohesion. It is, in the words of its curators, “not a mirror, but a fragment,” and perhaps therein lies its most compelling quality.
If you're in San José, or even in Costa Rica, make sure the Museo de Arte Costarricense and the Salón Nacional 2025 is a stop on your itinerary and support Costa Rica's contemporary art scene!
MÍRAME Contact Information:
MÍRAME Fine Art
Email: [email protected]
Follow: Facebook | Instagram
Salón Nacional 2025