Olga Costa

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Olga Costa (born Olga Kostakovsky) (1913 in Leipzig - 1993 in Guanajuato) was a Mexican painter of Russian descent.

The Daughter of Anna and the violinist Jakob Kostakovsky, she was born in Leipzig, Germany, and spent her childhood in Berlin. She arrived in Mexico at the age of twelve in 1925, disembarking in Veracruz. After a month the family settled in Mexico City. She studied in the National School of Plastic Arts together with Carlos Mérida after meeting Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Rufino Tamayo.

In 1935 she married the painter José Chávez Morado, and together they fought for social equality. They lived in the state of Guanajuato for many years and donated a rich collection of Pre-Hispanic, colonial and popular art to Mexico. During this period she returned to her painting activities, producing small works in gouache and oils.

On returning to Mexico City, she took part in founding the Galería Espiral. In 1945 she held her first individual exhibition in the Galería de Arte Mexicana and in 1946, traveled to Japan, where she was fascinated by Oriental art, whose technique and style she incorporated into her painting. Olga Costa died in the city of Guanajuato in 1993.