What we’ve Learned

MÍRAME Notes | What We've Learned So Far

We are now in our second year of MÍRAME, and it felt like a good moment to pause and think about what we have actually learned — about doing business in the country and about the Costa Rican art scene here more broadly.

1. The Costa Rican Art Scene Starts, but doesn't end, in San José

Costa Rica's capital city has a reputation as somewhere you pass through as fast as you can on the way to the beach or the rainforest. We've learned that there is so much to explore in San José, not least the museums, galleries, independent artist spaces and studios.

Each time we visit San José, we are met with warmth from its people and we continue to develop our relationship with our artists, which is hugely important to us. We view them as friends and have had the privilege of experiencing their city through their eyes, enjoying bars and restaurants we wouldn't have visited otherwise.

Our favourite neightbourhood is Barrio Escalante, north east of San José's downtown area. As the sun goes down the bars and restaurants fill up, the pavements come to life and the whole neighbourhood has an energy that spans all ages. It's walkable and genuinely fun with music spilling out into the streets. It makes us smile. Many galleries and artist spaces are located in this neighbourhood, and spending time there has given us a relationship to the city that we didn't expect when we started MÍRAME.

Daniela Marten Rothe, Anasuromai, Oil on canvas, 112 x 198 cm | 44.1 x 78 in.

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2. Challenging logistics can be a blessing

MÍRAME operates without a permanent physical space, which was a conscious business model to maximise our potential for travelling exhibitions within Costa Rica and internationally. Owing to Costa Rica's geography, we've found visitors to the country are unlikely to travel a long distance to visit a gallery. Being a predominantly online gallery means we can bring the art to the people — nationally and internationally.

This means while in Costa Rica, we spend a significant amount of time in a van — collecting work, delivering it, installing it, driving between studios and venues and clients. It was more complicated than we initially thought. But what it has turned out to be is one of the most valuable aspects of how we work. Being physically present in an artist's studio, seeing how they live and what surrounds them, adapting to different exhibition spaces gives you a different relationship to the work. It keeps us connected to everybody.

Despite the logistical challenges, it's quickly become one of our favourite aspects of running MÍRAME and engaging fully with the Costa Rican art scene.

Carolina Guillermet, Untitled, 2026, Tufted Tapestry, 80 x 100 cm | 31.5 x 39.4 in.

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3. Costa Rica's artists produce high-level work

These are not artists painting tropical motifs for the hotel market. Yes, there are painters working with Costa Rica's extraordinary natural landscape, which is undoubtedly a huge inspiration — and some of them are doing it at a very high level. But there are also artists here who are conceptually rigorous, politically engaged, making work that resonates with audiences beyond Costa Rica and Latin America.

The range of work being made here keeps surprising us. Photographers whose work has hung in the United Nations headquarters, artists mixing soil and spices directly into their canvases, textile makers working within a family tradition that spans generations, alongside painters doing extraordinary things with Costa Rica's landscape. We had no idea how much was here.

The professionalism of Costa Rica's artists is also worth a mention. It's not easy to represent yourself as an artist, and working with galleries can present its own challenges. Many of the artists we represent operate with the seriousness and discipline of artists working in major international centres. They research, they iterate, they think carefully about what they are making and why. That was not something we anticipated in quite the way we found it and it's something we want to keep supporting.

Supporting that professionalism, and helping artists develop the business and art world skills alongside their practice, is something we are actively working on as part of MÍRAME's broader mission.

Representing artists well means being selective. We want a broad programme to showcase the breadth of the Costa Rican art scene, but not every practice we encounter is right for MÍRAME, and knowing the difference is something we have had to learn.

Emmanuel Rodriguez-Chaves, Onslaught, Oil on canvas, 198.5 x 148.5 cm | 78.1 x 58.5 in.

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4. People around the world are engaging

Within the time we've been in business, we have had collectors get in touch from across Europe, United States and Canada — people who found MÍRAME physically at one of our pop-up exhibitions or through our website or blog. We have been galvanised by the reception our artists have received; collectors — often with no prior connection to Costa Rica — have either bought work or expressed genuine interest and appreciation for the Costa Rican art scene.

We knew this geographic spread would grow, gradually, over time as MÍRAME develops, but the appetite has been wonderful to see. It tells us our mission to support and promote the Costa Rican art scene internationally is necessary because the demand for it is already there.

Milo Gonzalez, Plantain Sellers, Oil on canvas, 100.3 x 100.3 cm | 39.5 x 39.5 in.

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5. There is still a lot of work to do

Costa Rica's identity as a natural paradise is one of the most powerful national brands in the world. What it means for the country's artists is that their work often exists in a different conversation, one that is harder to find and slower to reach an international audience.

Halfway through our second year in business, we have seen movement — collectors finding us from across the world, the international art conversation including Latin America in meaningful contexts, from Future Fair in NYC (where MÍRAME presented), the Venice Biennale and Art Basel.

But Costa Rican art is not yet where we think it should be on the international stage, and closing that gap is very much part of what MÍRAME is trying to do. The artists we work with are serious Latin American artists. Some of them should be showing in New York, London and Mexico City. This is something we believe, and something we are working towards.

Lorena Villalobos, Susurros del Bosque, 2026, Oil paint and cold wax on canvas, 120 x 120 cm | 47.2 x 47.2 in.