Exhibitions
Priscilla Monge at the CGAC: Art that confronts life, death, and feminist everyday life
Until October 5, 2025, the Galician Center for Contemporary Art (CGAC) in Santiago de Compostela hosts Questions of Life and Death , an exhibition that traces the career of Costa Rican artist Priscilla Monge (San José, 1968). The exhibition brings together key pieces from her various creative periods, consolidating her position as one of the most relevant voices in Central American contemporary art.
Priscilla Monge is a renowned conceptual and visual artist in the context of contemporary Central American art. After completing her training in painting at the University of Costa Rica, her artistic practice has expanded significantly, incorporating a wide spectrum of media and techniques, including installation, photography, video, textile work, and performance. This diversity of media has allowed her to develop her own artistic language, characterized by a profound reflection on the power structures, violence, and mechanisms of control present in everyday life.
Priscilla Monge: "Reversed Karma", 1996.
His work is distinguished by its ability to address these issues from a critical perspective, frequently using dark humor and irony as tools to highlight the tensions and contradictions inherent in the social and cultural contexts he analyzes. Through this combination of conceptual rigor and formal exploration, Monge has consolidated a prominent position in the Central American art scene, contributing significantly to the contemporary discussion on politics, identity, and power relations.
The Costa Rican artist launches "Questions of Life and Death" in an exhibition that addresses complex and sensitive issues, such as marital rape, sexual abuse, the normalization of menstruation, abuse, and femicide—topics that, at the time, had yet to enjoy full legal or social recognition. Through the use of irony and humor, the artist deploys a subtle yet incisive approach, capable of making visible the violence that permeates everyday life. Her practice simultaneously proposes a feminist and emancipatory perspective, inviting viewers to reflect on the power structures that sustain these injustices and on the need to question them.
Priscilla Monge: "Embroidery", 2013.
Monge's works are situated at the intersection of the verbal and the visual, exploring the multiple dimensions of signs and representations. As she notes: "They are located in a fractal space, that space between word and image and vice versa. It is at this limit that art generates a safe place, a place of spiritual quest and, most likely, a place of transformation." This approach underscores how her artistic practice transitions between different languages, creating a space for reflection and resonance that challenges traditional categories of interpretation.
Priscilla Monge. From the series "It's a Matter of Life or Death," 2003.
