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. He 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.

Life Vladimir Cora was born in San Diego el Naranjo in the municipality of Acaponeta, Nayarit. His father named him after Vladimir Lenin, and his last name is derived from that of the Cora people who are native to his home state.

He played with lace, white paper and paintbrushes as a child, but did not discover art until he was a teenager. At age fourteen, he wanted to be a musician, inspired by Carlos Santana, but says that he had to give it up for “…having clumsy hands.” He discovered art at age fifteen, working as a delivery boy for his aunt's pharmacy in Mazatlán. There he came across a magazine cover with a reproduction of a Monet painting.

He stated that when he discovered art, he decided that it was what he was born for. He had his very first exhibition in 1974 in Nayarit. He began to be able to live off his art around 1981, when he had an exhibition in Puerto Vallarta, where all thirty three pieces sold in one night. He used the money to buy a car. In 1982 he entered two pieces at the first Rufino Tamayo biennale in Oaxaca. One received a prize which allowed him to meet the famous Oaxacan painter. The series Los Apóstoles was on display in front of the Palacio de Bellas Artes in 2010. Outside of Mexico he has had exhibitions in Palm Springs, CA, Havana, Lima and Miami. thumb The Biggest Heart On Earth.Cora has spent most of his professional life working from his native Nayarit, rather than in Mexico City like most Mexican artists although he has a workshop in California. Much of his work has a relationship to this state, such as Danza de pájaros (Bird Dance) painted for the International Festival of Migratory Birds in San Blas. For this series, he built a cabin on the Palmar de Cuautla beach to observe the birds there. The piece was taken out of Guanajuato because the city could not guarantee its security.

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. He often paints without sketching first once he has a theme as he likes to be spontaneous. His painting technique is not sophisticated or elegant but rather expressionist, coarse and spontaneous. His use of light and color shows influence from Rufino Tamayo.