Costa Rica Arts & Theater – It had been a while since we last heard from Rodolfo Stanley some years ago. After spending some time away he is back with a new remarkable exhibition. Stanley offers Jazz Dance: 18 pictures painted with acrylic in medium and large formats, all display in Artflow Gallery, located at Escazu Avenue Mall.
Rodolfo Stanley returned from his travels to capture the beauty, and paint young students of ballet and contemporary dance as they learn and train.
Barzuna Alejandra Gonzalez, director of the Academy Jazzgoba, invited Stanley to visit the students while they practiced. Rodolfo then found the reason for another series of paintings, and began to photograph and draw scenes.
He expressed that he wanted to capture the beauty of the game between the dancers, and the physical strength and mental health of girls and young women who are between five and twenty.
This new series is different from the previous, but similar. There is no satire or censorship here, but admiration. Jazz dance is the day of the artist of the night.
These paintings are sets of opposites. The painting is divided into two opposites in one. For example, one of the paintings illustrates a ballerina exhausted on the floor on the upper half of the painting, under, girls dancing in chorus. Another picture features two vertical parts: on the left, a young girl curves in the air, on the right, a couple joins and curves together.
Almost all paintings are realistic, but meet some unusual elements, like a ballerina with a swan and a cellist helped by another dancer. Stanley portrays classic and modern dance through intense yet subtle colors.
In Costa Rica the interpretation of ballet and modern dance through painting is not common. Rodolfo Stanley is one of the artists who has created his own audience through his courage to create unique pieces.
Stanley began as a commercial designer but was able to leave the job thanks to an award granted to him in Miami. He used the money he received to pay for trips, travel to other countries and visit museums.
Stanley’s work has become known worldwide through numerous exhibitions in Costa Rica, and also in Chile, Peru, Venezuela, Cuba, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, USA, Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland. Germany and Japan. Once again he shares his passion with the Costa Rican public.
By Brenda Sotelo
