CECILIA COSTA

(Caldas da Rainha, PT, 1971)
She lives and works in Lisbon. Costa’s work encompasses a variety of media: having worked with resources such as sound, furniture, water, ice, and helium, among others, drawing and sculpture continue to be the backbone of her artistic production.
In her drawings, she seeks the idea of symmetry and dimensionality, and plays with the perceptions of the viewer. The figures, when present, seem to live in a kind of disconnection from reality, causing an imagery subversion that lies on the border between the second and third dimensions.

By giving materiality to the line through the use of paper tape, Costa reorders the two-dimensionality of drawing in a neighboring field that borders on the three-dimensional: the artist creates on the surface and subjects the drawing to a kind of sculptural materiality that has weight and density, in such a way that she plays with the binomials left/right, front/back, top/bottom. Her sculptural production also addresses

concepts such as symmetry, gravity, elasticity, and spatiality, presenting a subversive interest in the function of objects, bringing her closer to a Duchampian vocation associated with the readymade.

Costa has been showing her work at an international level, in renown art museums and galleries, as well as biennials (e.g. 14th Sydney Biennial in 2004).

Her work is represented in important private and public collections, e.g. Ars Fundum, Madrid, ES; Banco Big, Lisbon, PT; Banco Natixis, Madrid, ES; Banco Santander, Santander, ES; BESart – Colecção Banco Espírito Santo, Lisbon, PT; CAC – Contemporary Art Center, Málaga, ES; CACE – Colecção de Arte Contemporânea do Estado Português (Portuguese National Contemporary Art Collection, PT) Lisbon, PT; CAM / Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, PT; Fundação Carmona e Costa, Lisbon, PT; Fundação Ilídio Pinho, Porto, PT; Fundação Leal Rios, Lisbon, PT; Fundação PLMJ, Lisbon, PT; Galila Brazilai Hollander Collection, Brussels, BE; Col. Isabel e Julião Sarmento, Lisbon, PT.

She is represented by Aura Galeria, São Paulo, in Brazil, and in Portugal by Galeria Pedro Oliveira, Porto and Galeria Belo-Galsterer, Lisbon.