Barrio Escalante, San José

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Tapialand, by Carlos Tapia. An expansive, hallucinated metropolis unfolds across this monumental canvas of more than three meters, where architecture sheds all gravity to become a living organism.
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Carlos Tapia

Tapialand

Year
2016
Technique
Acrylic/Canvas
Dimensions
170 × 320 cm
Status
Available
Palette
vermilion red, warm orange, cobalt blue, emerald green, salmon pink, chrome yellow
Brushwork
Dense and vibrant chromatic planes demarcated by a continuous black linear drawing, with gestural impastos in the luminous vortices.

Curatorial analysis

An expansive, hallucinated metropolis unfolds across this monumental canvas of more than three meters, where architecture sheds all gravity to become a living organism. Its planes do not rest on stable foundations: they twist into Gothic spires, polychromatic domes, pinnacles resembling botanical finials, and zigzagging terraces that thrust forward toward the viewer with almost sculptural force. The pictorial space is saturated with edges defined by a firm black outline, a graphic device that contains yet simultaneously heightens the vibration of each unadulterated pigment.

Rhythm is forged through a continuous tension between the sharpness of the lower polygons and the circular fluidity crowning the scene. On the left, an incandescent vortex of fire and soot pierces the atmosphere with centripetal power; on the right, a dark celestial body haloed in flame serves as a disquieting solar counterweight. Between these two cosmic poles, the towers construct a jagged barrier of ascending rhythms, channeling the gaze along dizzying diagonals, impossible railings, and colonnades that seem to sag under their own chromatic weight.

The acrylic medium operates through sharp luminous contrasts, where pinks and crimsons coexist alongside emerald greens, vibrant yellows, and deep blues. There is no uniform ambient light in this vision, but rather multiple points of ignition erupting from the core of the structures or descending from the turbulent skies.

Tapialand presents a psychic geography where metropolitan delirium, carnival frenzy, and cataclysmic omen coalesce upon a single vibrant surface, delivering an immersive experience that bursts through the boundaries of conventional landscape.

Tapialand

More works by Carlos Tapia

153 works

Available works

View all 153 works by Carlos Tapia

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