Flora Langlois
Flora Langlois was born in 1927 to a family of artists and intellectuals in San José, Costa Rica. Her artistic journey began under the guidance of her mother, developing a passion that would shape her life between Costa Rica and the United States.
Flora Langlois, a devoted nature enthusiast, infuses her art with the joyous energy of her native Costa Rica. Through careful observation of natural elements, she transforms ordinary objects into fantastic beings and scenes. In her meticulously detailed works, seeds take human form and magical figures blend into elaborate forest landscapes filled with animals. Animals inhabit these meticulously rendered fictional environments, particularly forests that serve as containers for countless stories. Though whimsical in appearance, her complex compositions always maintain an element of mystery, with something deliberately concealed from the viewer’s eye.
After completing her undergraduate studies in California, Langlois returned to Costa Rica to assist her father with chapel mosaics before pursuing graduate education. In 1953, she settled in Wisconsin, studying under notable artists including Alfred Sessler and John Wilde receiving her Masters in Fine Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Both John Wilde and her mother became her primary influences, shaping the style, themes, and techniques that defined her work. Langlois continued her artistic career in Wisconsin until 2010, when she permanently returned to Costa Rica and established a studio in Escazu.
Selected Collections
Museo de Arte Costarricense, SanJose, Costa Rica; Lackner & Saenz Corp., San Jose, Costa Rica; Don Jose Figueres, Former President of Costa Rica; Commission for Mario Gonzales Chapel: Stations of the Cross, San Jose, Costa Rica; Plaza de la Cultura, San Jose, Costa Rica; Northwestern Mutual, Milwaukee, WI; Miller Art Museum, Sturgeon Bay, WI; Charles Allis Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI; The Neville Public Museum, Green Bay, WI; Museum of Wisconsin Art, West Bend, WI; Fairfield Center for Contemporary Art, Sturgeon Bay, WI.
