VLADIMIR CORA

Vladimir Cora (born 1951, Acaponeta, Nayarit) is a Mexican painter and sculptor based in the state of Nayarit, whose work has been recognized by various awards and membership in the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana. He discovered art at age fifteen, after deciding that he could not be a musician. Cora received training in Tijuana and Mexico City, with his first success in the 1980s. His style has been described as neo-figurative, minimalist and coarse, and he creates his works in series usually related to the apostles, flowers, birds and women, especially those related to Nayarit. He has had over 150 individual exhibitions both in Mexico and abroad and continues to work from his home state.

A student of master painter Rufino Tamayo, Cora has risen to the heights of his teacher. He received an honorary mention at the first Rufino Tamayo Biennal, the Gran Premio de Confraternidad de Cuatro Cultural at the first Iberoamerican Painting Biennal of the Instituto Andino de Artes Populares in Miami and the Fine Arts Prize of the government of Nayarit.

On Dec. 14 2000, 500 of his paintings were among 1,800 works displayed permanently at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles as part of the Bernard and Edith Lewin Latin American Art Galleries. The artists also included Tamayo, Jose Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. The permanent collection is the country’s largest of 20th-century Mexican art and worth $25 million.

Cora spent part of 1981 in Palm Springs where he met the Lewins through Tamayo, who was his mentor from 1979 until his passing in 1991.

Cora has dedicated most of his professional life working from his native Nayarit, rather than in Mexico City like most Mexican artists although he has workshops and exhibitions in California.