Barrio Escalante, San José

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Tertulia, by José Alejandro Herrera. A bare lightbulb hangs amid cobwebs from the wooden ceiling, suspended directly over the geometric center of a daily encounter.
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José Alejandro Herrera

TertuliaInquire about availability

Year
2017
Technique
Acrylic/Canvas
Dimensions
53 × 38 cm
Collection
Urbana
Status
Inquire about availability
Palette
wood brown, cerulean blue, leaf green, mustard yellow, lilac
Brushwork
Defined graphic outlining with rhythmic linear shading and highly saturated flat color fields

Curatorial analysis

A bare lightbulb hangs amid cobwebs from the wooden ceiling, suspended directly over the geometric center of a daily encounter. In this domestic space, two men with weathered skin and graying beards share coffee and bread across a table dressed in a yellow cloth. Everything in the scene vibrates with the cadence of a reinterpreted genre painting: the smoke rising lazily from cups and an ashtray, the restful gestures of hands, and that direct gaze cast toward the viewer by one of the figures, turning us into an involuntary accomplice to the conversation.

The space is articulated through a pronounced contrast between the warm enclosure of the wood and the visual release of the open window. The floorboards and walls, rendered with meticulous hatching that mimics wood grain, construct a steep perspective that pushes the furniture and figures toward the foreground. In counterpoint, the central opening functions as a painting within a painting, revealing an urban landscape of corrugated zinc roofs, tangled electrical wires, and green hills that anchors the scene in the immediate reality of a Latin American neighborhood.

Herrera modulates the composition through firm graphic outlines and saturated tones, where stylization brushes against popular illustration and affectionate caricature. This playful language spills down onto the floor, where an agile dog and a slumbering cat beside empty soda cans balance the tension in the lower plane, lending an animated rhythm that counters the stillness of the two friends.

There is no naive idealization of aging or modesty here; both are embraced as living matter of affection and shared memory. Between the steam of the coffee and the worn timber, the conversation becomes a tangible refuge, a modest rite of resilience against the hurried pace of the world continuing just outside the window.

Tertulia

More works by José Alejandro Herrera

66 works

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