Barrio Escalante, San José

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Super Mega Extra Cool, by Carlos Tapia. Optical vertigo dominates the surface from the very first instant.
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Carlos Tapia

Super Mega Extra CoolSold

Year
2009
Technique
Acrylic/Canvas
Dimensions
184 × 190 cm
Collection
Glitter
Status
Sold
Palette
turquoise blue, carmine red, bright yellow, magenta, cobalt blue, bubblegum pink
Brushwork
Flat fields of saturated acrylic delimited by continuous black linear strokes with a crisp, graphic finish.

Curatorial analysis

Optical vertigo dominates the surface from the very first instant. Through an extreme worm's-eye view that distorts spatial perspective, a profusion of spires, pinnacles, and turrets shoots toward a turquoise sky speckled with light clouds. The traditional austerity of Gothic architecture is subverted by a strident, overflowing palette, where converging vectors force the viewer's gaze into a turbulent ascent. Each tower breaks down into vibrant stripes, pointed arches, and concentric rose windows that merge the memory of medieval stained glass with the psychedelic dynamism of an amusement park.

The acrylic is applied with relentless graphic precision, utilizing pure, flat colors without atmospheric gradations, rigorously bounded by thick black outlines that compartmentalize the canvas into luminous cells. Rather than functioning as a passive background, the architecture becomes a labyrinth inhabited by mass culture. In place of saints or gargoyles, disconcerting figures peer from niches and windows: Mickey Mouse's smiling head framed against a fragmented sky, a geisha-like face crowned by a fan inscribed with the painting's title, mischievous cats, and a spire labeled with the Facebook logo akin to a commercial display.

This juxtaposition between the sacred and the profane reshapes the very meaning of architectural elevation. The church spire, historically conceived to guide the human gaze toward the transcendent, now functions as a colossal scaffold for visual saturation, digital leisure, and iconographic consumption. The canvas constructs an hallucinated metropolis where traditional devotion and contemporary spectacle merge in a single dizzying pulse, celebrating hyperstimulation with corrosive and exuberant wit.

Super Mega Extra Cool

More works by Carlos Tapia

153 works

Available works

View all 153 works by Carlos Tapia
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