source: mendeswooddm

Costa researches the narratives of everyday life in a flow of elements composed of common and left over, residual materials. His sculptures parse and revel in the temperature, tone and other aspects of visibility in their constituent parts. Interested in the fine ambiguity between the object and the art object — he takes up a critical and humorous position towards the contemporary world.

Costa’s work has recently been featured in group exhibitions including: “Under The Same Sun: Art From Latin America Today”, Museo Jumex, Mexico City, Mexico (2015/2016); Kiti Ka’ Aeté”, The Modern Institute, Glasgow, United Kingdom (2015); “Draw Flying Penis/Pussy Against Gentrification”, White Cubicle Toilet Gallery”, London, United Kingdom; “Imagine Brazil”, DHC/Art Contemporary Art, Foundation for Contemporary Art, Montreal, Canada (2015/2016); “Poem Nº 00000000000000000000000000000, 9″, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo, Brazil; 10th Mercosur Biennial – Messages From a New America, Porto Alegre, Brazil; “Quarta-Feira De Cinzas”, EAV Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2015), “TwoHotel Part I”, Emalin, Piracanga Beach, Bahia, Brazil (2015); “Favour Of A Total Eclipse”, Fiorucci Art Trust, Stromboli, Italy (2015); “Jac Leirner”, Albert Baronian, Brussels, Belgium; “Imagine Brazil”, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil (2015); “Here There”, QM Gallery/Al Riwaq, Qata (2015);“Under the same sun”, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY (2014); “Imagine Brazil”, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo (2014/2013); “Correspondências”, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, Sao Paulo (2013); “April”, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2013) and “Mythologies”, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2011).

His solo presentations include: “La Commedia dell’Arte”, Peep-Hole, Milan (2014); “Touch me I am geometrically sensitive”, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2014); “From My Body Comes, Through Your Body Goes”, Zabludowicz Collection, London (2014) and “S Título C AmorFrom Me To U”, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2014).
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source: guggenheimorg

Adriano Costa was born in São Paulo in 1975 and graduated with a BA in art from the Universidade de São Paulo. Costa’s sculptures and installations update the modernist and Minimalist legacies of geometric abstraction for contemporary Brazil through the use of everyday objects. His work also speaks to the lingering traces of colonialism and the potential of a localized artistic tradition.

Costa reinterprets the approach and aesthetic of Neo-Concretism—specifically as manifest in the work of key Brazilian artists such as Jac Leirner, Hélio Oiticica, and Tunga—in sculptures and installations made from materials drawn from life in his home country including mosquito nets, umbrellas, and knitted tapestries. Applying a feel for compositional harmony, the artist disregards the objects’ original functions and combines them according to form, highlighting their visual relationships through strategic rearrangement. Yet while Costa’s works are primarily abstract, he often uses titles to imbue them with symbolism or narrative, as in, for example, The Bananas of the Earth (Os Bananas da Terra, 2012) and DOGS are MEN (2013). The latter consists of a collection of muzzles, leashes, and toys arranged into a single hanging sculpture with sadomasochistic undertones, and its title evokes the idiomatic dismissal of the male sex.

Along similar lines, Costa dubbed his 2012 exhibition at Mendes Wood DM in São Paulo Plantation, thereby relating its content to various important topics in Brazil including the exploitation of the country’s natural environment, the lingering traces of American colonialism, and the economic model of slavery on which the nation was founded. While playful, such works also exhibit a political thrust, evident in their use of delicately balanced formal components as signifiers of an ideological stance.

Costa’s works are usually installed chaotically across exhibition spaces in a style that the artist has dubbed “pre-sculptoric.” His avoidance of the pedestal and the frame highlights the vernacular aspect of the objects he uses and emphasizes their deviation from art-historical tradition. For his series Rugs (Tapetes, 2010), he spent two years collecting dozens of pieces of fabric, which he arranged on a floor like a carpet. The contrast between the fragility of the media and the all-encompassing nature of its display is part of what the artist defines as an unexpected infusion of geometry with emotion.

Costa has had solo exhibitions at Galeria Polinésia, São Paulo (2009); Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna (2013); Sadie Coles HQ, London (2014); and Peep-Hole, Milan. He has also participated in the group exhibitions Mitologias (Mythologies), Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2011); Convite á Viagem–Rumos Artes Visuais 2011–2013, Itaú Cultural, São Paulo (2012); Imagine Brazil, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo (2013); Correspondências, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo (2013); and Time Space Poker Face, Be-Part, Waregem, Belgium (2013). He completed a residency with Kiosko Galería in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia (2010), and was included in the Festival Internacional de Arte Contemporânea SESC VideoBrasil, SESC Belenzinho, São Paulo (2011). Costa lives and works in São Paulo.