Miguel Hernández Bastos New Paintings

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MÍRAME Fine Art is proud to present a new body of work by Miguel Hernández Bastos, one of Costa Rica’s most established and forward-moving artists. This latest series of large-scale paintings confirms Hernández Bastos’s place as a key figure in contemporary Latin American painting.

Hernández Bastos is one of Costa Rica’s most respected contemporary painters, known for his distinctive use of smoke as a central material in his work. Over the past two decades, he has developed a technique that uses smoke to build form, depth, and atmosphere through controlled burns, using an old fashioned oil lamp. This approach gives his paintings a layered, ephemeral quality that presents themes of presence, trace, and transformation.

I’ve always been drawn to Miguel’s unusual technique of using smoke to create a quiet intensity in his work. This new series continues to build on that energy; even the paintings that forgo smoke, like Despertar, carry its presence. They still suggest transience, but with a more grounded, painterly weight.

Read on as explore how some of the Hernández Bastos new paintings continue his practice of exploring the human figure through abstraction.

The Human Form

Miguel Hernández-Bastos, Danza, Charcoal and oil on canvas

In Danza, one of the largest works in the series at 150 x 180 cm, Hernández Bastos uses charcoal and oil to create a floating composition with many figures euphorically reaching upwards. The bodies are softly indicated through soft contours and faded gestures. The surface is built gradually, allowing marks to linger or dissolve. This effect, coupled with the large scale, results in a monumental painting that holds stillness and motion together.

Danza highlights Hernández Bastos's skill at presenting rhythm, playing with how form, space and materials can move across the canvas.

Smoke as Structure

Miguel Hernández-Bastos, Cuerpos Sutiles, Smoke and oil on canvas

In Cuerpos Sutiles, Hernández Bastos expands the visual language he has developed over the years, bringing colour further into focus. The composition moves between tones of violet, deep blue, and ochre yellow, with wisps of smoke used to diffuse the edges and soften transitions. This is one of the more chromatically rich works in the series, and the oil paint gives the canvas a physical depth that offsets the ethereal quality of the smoke.

Smoke gives Hernández Bastos a way to think in layers. In this work, and others like Reencuentro and Ascender, there’s a sense of painting as accumulation of gestures, of material traces, and of emotional temperature.

Miguel Hernández Bastos, Ascender, Smoke and oil on canvas

As mentioned in the introduction, Despertar is comprised of oil paint alone, without the smoke or charcoal that defines much of Hernández Bastos’s work. Yet the influence of those materials lingers. The surface carries a softness and atmospheric diffusion that recalls the effect of smoke, while the oil paint introduces greater density, intensity of colour, and texture. It's a more abstract work as he paints an ambiguous extension of the figure that feels organic; rich colours extend, and appear like an afterimage or echo of the figure.

There are also bolder contrasts in this piece with dark blue, almost black, appearing in the lower right of the canvas, acting like a shadow, grounding the figure and helping to exaggerate the forward motion. This figure is moving across ground, rather than floating in the canvas like many of Hernández Bastos's other paintings.

Miguel Hernández-Bastos, Despertar, Oil on canvas

Hernández Bastos has spent years developing a studio practice that prioritises the process and qualities of smoke. He brings the same level of attention to this new work, continuing a path he has been on for decades. The paintings are consistent with earlier series, but I feel there is a shift here, with a lightness in some places, more tension in others. The result is a body of new work that feels fresh and refined, while staying connected to the artist's practice.

Now Available at MÍRAME. Click here to view all available works.

The new collection of Hernández Bastos new paintings is available now through MÍRAME Fine Art.

Whether you’re familiar with his work or encountering it for the first time, this new group offers a clear picture of why Hernández Bastos is arguably one of Costa Rica's most renowned contemporary artists. He works with consistency, depth, and an approach to painting that continues to surprise us.

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Hernández Bastos New Paintings