Name:
Melina Dada

Occupation:
Artist, Designer.

Nationality:
Costa Rica

Residency locations:
1977 Born in San José, Costa Rica
1984 Louvain-La Neuve, Belgium
1992 New York, USA
2001 Barcelona, Spain
2005 Los Angeles, California
2017 -2020 London, UK
2020 -2022 San José, Costa Rica

[email protected]

Education:
1994 Conservatorio Castella, VO2 specialty Oil Paint and Woodblock print
1998-2003  Universidad Creativa, Design
2021 UNAM , Psychology BA
2022 Master in Holistic Psychology, ESNECA, Madrid Spain

Other studies:
1994-1998  Studies Universidad de Costa Rica, visual arts
1994-1996   Studies Universidad del Diseño, Arquitecture.
2003 Installations and scenography by Pep Duran, Cultural Center of Spain.
2008 -2011 Tom Wudl studio, Art, Los Angeles California
2010 Gallery assistant at GB Gallery, Los Angeles California.
2013 Pantheon-Sorbonne Université Paris, France, Art Conceptuel.

Teaching Experience:
2003-2005 In Charge of teaching, Universidad Creative, Design, San Jose Costa Rica

Exhibitions:
1994 Collective Exhibition Teatro Conservatorio Castella, San José Costa Rica
1994 Collective Exhibition CENAC Gallery 1887, San Jose Costa Rica
2003 Installation Project, Collective Exhibition, CCE, San Jose Costa Rica
2004 Solo Exhibition Grand Salon Hotel Marriot, San Jose Costa Rica
2008 Collective Exhibition, Tom Would Studio, Los Angeles California
2009 Collective Exhibition BG Gallery, Los Angeles, California
2010 Collective Exhibition BG Gallery, Los Angeles, California
2011 Collective Exhibition Tom Wudl studio, Los Angeles California
2014  Collective Exhibition Museo Arte Contemporaneo San Jose, Costa Rica
2017 Lano Bienal, San Jose Costa Rica
2018 Lano Bienal ,San Jose ,Costa Rica
2019 Proyecto Sofonisba, Galería Casa Escalante, San Jose, Costa Rica
2019 Bienal do Douro Global Print, Portugal
2020 Geo-Grafismos, Galería Casa 49, San Jose, Costa Rica
2021-2022 Artist residency, Galeria Casa 49, San Jose, Costa Rica

Private Collections:
Costa Rica, Los Angeles, New York, North Carolina, Portugal, London

Languages:
Spanish
French
English

Biographical data:
Melina Dada is a Latin American female artist, she was born in San Jose, Costa Rica, 1977. In a house full of art, her parents are two renowned writers in Latin America and Europe, the story tells that she began to draw before she spoke, her parents seeing her talent and passion got her painting classes at age of 3 with the national prize of painting Gerardo Gonzales, a great friend of the couple. Lived her first years in a bohemian environment of free thinkers and academics.

At the age of 6, she entered at Conservatorio de Castella, an institution created for children with artistic abilities, at the age of 12 she sold her first paintings and sculptures she  obtained his first degree in studied in Oil Paint and printmaking, later on she continues her studies in Oil Paint and printmaking at University of Costa Rica and  Design at Universidad Creativa.

Later, she continued her painting studies joining the Tom Wudl Studio in California in 2008.

In 2013 she further developed her Conceptual Art studies at Pantheon-Sorbonne Université Paris, France.

Melina has also lived in Belgium, New York and Barcelona where she has done studies and worked in her art and design protects.

Dada’s work includes Collective shows all around the world and Solo exhibitions in San Jose Costa Rica, Tom Would Studio and BG Gallery in Los Angeles California. Her latest creations have been presented at Museo Arte Contemporaneo and Lano Biennal in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Since 2015, she  began incorporating technology in her art, combining digital space and Oil paint in to her prints Creating a bridge between classical painting and the new digitized tools of expression, she also presents the same aspect in the images that evoke a classical environment within a contemporary structure, marking that historical moment that she  lived as an artist; rejected the distinction between figurative and abstract painting in order to create vibrantly energetic works that eluded categorization. Taking the Conceptual grid as a starting point, she expanded it to produce massive works that evoked a starkly contemporary Impressionism, lurching toward chaos, inaugurating the end of reason.

The full breadth of her playful and subversive oeuvre, which reminds us that art’s radical power lies in its simple, unreasonable mandate: turn something into something else.

Metaphorically denote a shift of interest from the pleasure of conversing with her oneiric world and the spectator.

She’s currently working in her studio in Costa Rica and graduating in Psychology to create lines between Carl Gustav Jung conceptual methods and her own works of art.