Focus: Osvaldo Sequeira Paintings
Osvaldo Sequeira has a new exhibition opening at Etérea Galería in Los Yoses on 22 April — and if you haven't been to the space yet, it's worth the visit. We were there in January for an opening of an exhibition that included Osvaldo's paintings and it was packed - we could barely get in the door! - which tells you something about the gallery space and the appetite for his work right now.
Ahead of this upcoming exhibition titled Margen, el peso de lo invisible, we thought it a good moment to look closely at Osvaldo Sequeira paintings, and in particular our favourite series Dis-Conexiones that we currently have available.
Osvaldo is a technically accomplished painter. He trained in Graphic Design at the University of Costa Rica before founding the animation studio Estudio Flex, and that background in visual narrative and structure is visible across his painting series. His works are figurative and observational — influenced by Sorolla and Caillebotte, he works directly from life, painting en plein air. This direct observation gives his work its grounding feeling that you are witnessing real moments.
The premise of Dis-Conexiones is straightforward: Osvaldo explores the human need to withdraw momentarily from the noise of daily life as a form of self-preservation. He's inspired by everyday moments observed across Costa Rica and what people do when emotional overload becomes overwhelming. The works in this series offer a pause, a moment of introspection — and because his scenes are so precisely observed, they feel authentic. The compositions are still and calm, reflecting the subjects.
The works in the Dis-Conexiones series feel particularly resonant right now, as our pace of daily life continues to accelerate.
Osvaldo Sequeira, El Viaje
Let's look first at El Viaje. This paintings presents a group of young people sitting by a river, bodies loose, gazes elsewhere. The scene is ordinary — a day out, a moment of rest — but the painting shows something more ambiguous. Nobody is looking at anyone else, and even the man gesticulating with his hands in the air doesn't seem to be talking to anyone in particular. The warm ochre of the water and the dense green behind them give the composition a hazy, suspended quality, as though time has slowed. Osvaldo is drawn to these in-between moments — the natural pauses in everyday life that usually go unrecorded.
Osvaldo Sequeira, Las Palomas
Las Palomas works differently. A traffic light hangs against an open sky, birds settled along its arm, a green arrow pointing into nothing. The urban infrastructure that usually directs the city has been quietly colonised by pigeons indifferent to its purpose. There is something drily funny about it, but also genuinely poetic — the city paused, its signals ignored. The green arrow points onwards, but the birds have claimed the infrastructure of human urgency for an afternoon rest.
Standing in front of Osvaldo's canvases in person, what strikes you first is the light. It radiates from the surface in a way that photographs don't fully convey, and it contributes to the emotional warmth his scenes carry.
As a Costa Rican artist, Osvaldo has a deep familiarity with his country. Whether painting landscape, urban spaces or the people who inhabit them, his work conveys a specific Costa Rican texture of Latin American life that is still relatively unknown internationally, and that specificity is a large part of what draws collectors to his work.
Beyond Dis-Conexiones, his series Temporales — inspired by Costa Rica's seasonal rainstorms — is also available through MÍRAME and worth exploring. Osvaldo was awarded the Francisco Amighetti National Award for Visual Arts in 2019, one of Costa Rica's most prestigious art prizes, for his series Ser/Humano, a collection that examines human emotions through bodily representations on transparent methacrylate surfaces.
Osvaldo Sequeira paintings are in collections in Spain, Colombia and the USA, and he has shown extensively across Costa Rica. The new show at Etérea — Margen, el peso de lo invisible — opens 22 April at 7pm in Los Yoses, and given how the January opening went, we'd suggest arriving early!
El Viaje, Las Palomas and a further selection of Osvaldo Sequeira paintings are available through MÍRAME. To inquire or to arrange a visit to the gallery, contact Belinda at [email protected].
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