Exhibited from March 3 to April 10, 2025, at the University Council Gallery of the University of Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica.
Hidden Universes by Jorge Arias: The Infinite in the Minuscule.
Curatorial text by Dr. Sofía Vindas Solano
Jorge Arias’ exhibition “The Scientist” brings together a collection of twenty fluorescence photomicrographs captured by the artist over sixteen years of scientific research in the fields of virology, cell biology, and molecular biology. Each piece in the exhibit is a spectacle of vibrancy and shadows, filled with the shapes and colors of the universe that composes us.
Arias is emphatic about the intention driving him to share these works, stating that the exhibition stems from his desire to build a bridge between science and artistic practices—as an exhortation to rekindle our “connection with the natural world, which, for many people, has been relegated to a secondary plane due to technology.”
These photographs of the micro-universe within us serve as a gateway to the concerns that occupy the artist’s mind. Arias uses these images of our inner world as a means to make us reflect on our external world and the harm we are capable of inflicting upon it.
Each microscopic capture invites us to contemplate the macro ramifications of our relationship with nature and science—the role we play as a society in climate change, environmental pollution, pandemics, our experience with the acceleration brought on by virtuality, and even the role of science in warfare or in the advancement—or neglect—of human rights.
Beyond this, the artist also wants us to see the beauty that science and biotechnological knowledge are capable of creating. These glimpses into microorganisms and biological processes at a minuscule scale also demonstrate how technology can work alongside nature to heal us and find cures or potential answers for many of the ailments afflicting our contemporary societies.
As an artist, Arias has said that he lives at the boundary between two realities: as a scientist, he dedicates his life to examining the biological inner world through the lens of a microscope, while his concerns as an inhabitant of this world spill beyond the laboratory and accompany him in his academic work. At the same time, the artist emphasizes that this exhibition exemplifies his work as a science professional, conducting research at the University of Costa Rica using the instrumental resources available in its laboratories. For Arias, it is remarkable how these tools can be placed at the service of our disciplines to create better worlds.
We invite you to take part in this experience between science and art, in the cosmic dance that Jorge Arias reveals to us—between cells and galaxies at varying scales.
