Rossella Matamoros

Rossella Matamoros

A Latin American Contemporary Artist

Matamoros (b. 1960, San José), is a multidisciplinary artist who works across painting, drawing, printmaking, installation and theatre design. She has collaborated on projects internationally, including the USA, Mexico, France, Italy, Japan and Venice.

For example, when Matamoros participated in the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003, she brought something distinctly Costa Rican to one of the world's most prestigious art events. Her installation, "My Heart of a Fortress City", was a significant moment for Costa Rican contemporary art during one of the biggest international settings in the art world.

More than two decades later, this Costa Rican and Latin American contemporary artist continues to enjoy recognition across multiple continents. MÍRAME are thrilled to present Matamoros as an established figure in Costa Rica's art scene.

Rossella Matamoros, Acrylic on canvas

After completing her Bachelor's degree in Painting at the University of Costa Rica in 1983, Matamoros secured a French Government Scholarship to study at the École des Beaux-Arts et Arts Décoratifs in Paris. A Fulbright Scholarship followed, leading to a Master's in Fine Arts from George Washington University in 1992. During this period, she worked for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, which was an experience that informed her understanding of how museums create cultural narratives.

But it was a Japan Foundation Scholarship to Kyoto Seika University in 1999-2000 that proved transformative. Matamoros immersed herself in Japanese performing arts, a study that would fundamentally alter her approach to installation and performance. The research opened new dimensions in her practice, allowing this Latin American contemporary artist to synthesise Eastern philosophies with regional concerns.

A multidisciplinary practice

While many know Matamoros for her striking abstract paintings and collages, her practice encompasses drawing, sculpture, installation, performance, video and costume design. This multiplicity is a deliberate strategy to address complex social issues through varied artistic languages.

Her abstract paintings reveal a distinctive visual language, syncretic works characterised by firm, decisive strokes. Inspired by primitivism and ritualistic processes, her canvases feature recurring motifs: hands, feet, traces of movement. These elements speak to an impulse in her work, and the need to reconnect with the primordial, with ancestral knowledge. The paintings function as visual records of her performance-based practice, where gesture and mark-making become inseparable from the body's movement through space.

Her installations tackle subjects that many artists avoid: teenage pregnancy, femicide, climate change, immigration. "Have You Heard It? Have You Felt It?" (2019), an installation about teenage pregnancy at the Calderón Guardia Museum, was declared of cultural interest by the Ministry of Culture. The 2020 installation "See Ourselves in the Mirror?" earned her the Francisco Amighetti National Prize, which is one of Costa Rica's highest artistic honours.

About Indigenous Costa Rican Women / Yesterday & today. (Archeology & Contemporary Art). National Museum of Costa Rica, 130th anniversary. Part of the exhibition Translucid Seeds 2017.

International Recognition for a Latin American Voice

Matamoros has exhibited in over 150 shows across 35 years, with works shown in Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland, Taiwan, Japan, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Honduras, Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala and Peru. She's participated in major biennials from Venice to Tijuana, establishing herself as a significant artist in contemporary Latin American abstraction.

Her 2021 participation in the "Next Season" artistic residency on climate change resulted in "THE EMBRACE," a video performance created with Costa Rica's Ministry of Energy. That same year, she was selected for the Karst Residency in Spain, working with elders in Cañada del Hoyo for "Mestizo Territories" at La Neomudéjar Museum in Madrid.

Recent projects continue this trajectory. In 2023, she participated in Madrid's "Un aguacero" performance festival with "Desarrollo? vos sí creés?" addressing femicide. Her 2024 exhibition "Ausencia / Creatividad" examined anxiety and depression in young people. In 2025, she's been invited to "Nexos 2025" in Trujillo de Cáceres, Spain, presenting painting, performance, and video.

Rossella Matamoros | Latin American Contemporary Artist

Rossella Matamoros, artist portrait

As the art world increasingly recognises voices from Latin America, Matamoros represents a generation of Latin American contemporary artists who built international careers without compromising their regional concerns. Her work demonstrates that abstraction can address urgent social issues, and that formal experimentation and political engagement aren't mutually exclusive.

For collectors encountering Rossella Matamoros for the first time, her work represents a significant opportunity: an established artist with museum recognition across three continents, whose practice synthesises performance, installation and painting into bold mixed media works. Matamoros is an artist who has absorbed decades of international influence—from Parisian ateliers to Kyoto performing arts—without losing its Central American urgency.

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To receive more information on Rossella Matamoros and to see her available artworks, please contact Belinda Seppings at MÍRAME Fine Art.

MÍRAME Contact Information:

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Rossella Matamoros showing at the Calderón Guardia Museum, San José, Costa Rica