Sofía Ruíz
°1982, San José, Costa Rica
Lives and works in Heredia, Costa Rica.
Sofía Ruíz, is a Latin American artist whose practice blends realism with dense, textured surfaces to explore the emotional and psychological dimensions of memory, identity, and otherness. Her work has been featured in institutions such as the MEAM in Barcelona, the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the Costa Rican Art Museum, and the Mosam Art Museum in South Korea.
She studied fine arts with emphasis in Painting and Printmaking from the University of Costa Rica, and has a Master’s in Educational Management. Ruiz has completed artist residencies in the United States, Argentina, Cuba, and South Korea. Her career has been recognized internationally with awards such as the Overall Winner of the Visual Art Open 2024 (UK), Best Overseas Artist in the Women in Art Prize (UK), the 2025 AICA Award for Best Solo Exhibition in a Private Gallery, the Ancora Prize, and the ORA Award (Italy), among others.
Her work explores a sense of otherness, duality, and the loss of identity she experienced as a child when her mother suffered from amnesia. Often feeling like a stranger in her own home, a caretaker rather than a typical child, this emotional disconnection is reflected in the isolated, distant children that appear in her paintings. Her images speak of the contradictions within us: how we can feel both seen and invisible, present and absent. The textures and forms in her work hold tension between clarity and distortion, as a way to explore how memories can be fixed, altered, or lost over time.
Selected exhibitions:
Solo exhibitions:
2025, Fábula, Matices Gallery, Costa Rican Country Club, Escazú (CR)
2024, Rastros, Galeria Talentum, San Jose (CR)
2023, Make-Believe / Imaginary, C&C Gallery, online on Artsy. 2022, Imaginary / Make-Believe, ConArte SJ Gallery (CR)
2017, Solo Print Exhibition, University of Costa Rica Gallery, San José (CR)
2014, Fictions, Allegro Gallery, Panama City (PA)
2013, On and Off, Giamaart Gallery, Benevento (IT)
2013, I am the Others, curated by María José Monge, Central Bank Museums, San José (CR)
2010, The Garden, Patrajdas Contemporary Art Gallery, Chicago (US)
2009, Red, Lázaro Gallery, San José (CR)
2009, The Garden of the Unconscious, Kandinsky Gallery, San José (CR)
2008, Family Matters, William Center Art Gallery & Art Collections, Experimental Printmaking Institute, PA (US)
2007, Family Matters, National Gallery, San José (CR)
Group exhibitions:
2025, Timeless Art, Blacklight Art Gallery, Valencia (ES)
2025, Bold and Emotional, Space Art Gallery, Kolding (DK)
2025, Paradojas, Calderon Guardia Museum, San Jose (CR)
2024, Weird, Cultural Center El Aleph, San José (CR)
2024, Internacional Finalist Painting Exhibition, Almenara Art Prize 2024, Real Circulo de la Amistad, Cordoba (ES)
2024, 2da Edition Croma Bienal 2024, San Jose (CR)
2024, Finalist Exhibition Women in Art Prize 2024, Roundhouse, London (UK)
2024, ModPortrait 2023 , MEAM, (European Museum of Modern Art), Barcelona (ES)
2024, The Tropics, Modern Eden Gallery, San Francisco (US)
2023, Efigies, Regional San Ramón`s Museum, San Ramón (CR)
2019 Extraña Infancia, Costa Rican Art Museum MAC, San Jose (CR)
2016 Figuración y Abstracción, Allegro Gallery, (PA)
2015 JustMad 6, Contemporary Art Selection, Madrid (ES)
2014 Wynwood Selection, Galeria la Localidad, ARTBO , Bogota (CO)
2013 11th World Cultural Art Symposium, The Mosan Art Museum, (KR)
2013 Collective Fictions, Nouvelles Vagues, Curated by Isabelle Lenormand, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (FR)
2012 Printmaking in Costa Rica, Ayuntamiento de Alcorcón, Madrid (ES)
2012 Intersubjetividades, Central Bank Museum of Costa Rica, San José (CR)
2011 Casino 2011, Klaus Stainmetz Gallery, (CR)
2008 Cocktails & Collecting, Allentown Art Museum, PA (USA)