Barrio Escalante, San José

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Catedral Sumergida, by Carlos Tapia. An impossible architectural mass, glowing in solar yellows and caustic vermilions, rises defiantly above a gray void furrowed by white wakes of foam.
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Carlos Tapia

Catedral Sumergida

Year
2010
Technique
Acrylic/Canvas
Dimensions
193 × 140 cm
Status
Available
Palette
chrome yellow, vermilion, lead gray, cobalt blue, coral pink
Brushwork
Smooth planes of intense color bounded by continuous black lines and gestural splatters in the background

Curatorial analysis

An impossible architectural mass, glowing in solar yellows and caustic vermilions, rises defiantly above a gray void furrowed by white wakes of foam. At a monumental scale (nearly two meters high), the canvas imposes an ascending vertigo where the traditional idea of submersion is subverted: instead of marine gloom and damp patinas, the structure burns with the strident vitality of a living organism that refuses dissolution.

The spatial construction bypasses classical perspective to operate through strata and spirals. Curved ramps, stylized gothic arches, renaissance domes, and disjointed buttresses are articulated through an unyielding, graphic black line that bounds saturated fields of color. This linear rigidity deliberately clashes with the atmospheric background, where pictorial matter churns and spatters in aquatic swirls. Toward the base, the architecture splits into two opposing natures: to the left, a grayish and pink grid evoking modern concrete skeletons; to the right, crimson tongues spilling downward like heavy drapery or magma into the abyss.

A pride of reddish felines roams the yellow ledges and landings without haste or fear. These creatures provide an enigmatic sense of scale and a narrative dimension akin to medieval bestiaries or oneiric fables. Their presence desacralizes the temple and inhabits the labyrinth, turning what could be a tragic vestige into a suspended refuge. The cathedral asserts itself as a self-contained citadel where formal fantasy endures intact against the silent siege of the waters.

Catedral Sumergida

More works by Carlos Tapia

153 works

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