Adriano Costa

Adriano Costa explores consumption, fashion, horror, and society’s anxieties by juxtaposing a collection of objects with abstract yet often realistic sculptural forms. Working across a range of materials and media – including sculpture, assemblage, drawing, painting, and installation – Costa’s work emerges as a sharp commentary on social class, popular culture, music, and youth. Throughout Costa’s practice, there is a deep engagement with reality that relies on tragic irony rather than originality within the creative process. He stretches a reflection on the true value of a work of art, probing the question of how common or even noble materials can be transmuted into an art object and vice versa. Adriano Costa (b. 1975, São Paulo, Brazil ) lives and works in São Paulo. His solo exhibitions include We Wont Be Disappointed: The Paris Spin-Off , Au_Passage , Paris (2025); We Wont Be Disappointed , Pivô , São Paulo (2025); Elfen , Furstenberg Zeitgenossisch , Donaueschingen (2025); Sweet , Mendes Wood DM , Paris (2025); 1 metro de cabelo, Mendes Wood DM , São Paulo (2025); ax -d. us. t , Emalin , London (2024) ; MILK OF SLUMS – RUA DOS CACIQUES , Mendes Wood DM , New York (2023); YOUR WORK AND ITS CONSEQUENCES , Emalin , London (2022); CEMITÉRIO , City SALTS , Birsfelden (2022); Philosophy of the World , Mendes Wood DM , Brussels (2022); ROCKWHORESHOW , Nuno Centeno , Porto (2019); wetANDsomeOLDstuffVANDALIZEDbyTHEartist , Kölnischer Kunstverein , Cologne (2018); B A I L E , Instituto Tomie Ohtake , São Paulo (2018); DearMeatCutsDevilMayCry , David Kordansky Gallery , Los Angeles (2016); Every Camel Tells a Story , Mendes Wood DM , São Paulo (2015); Touch me I am geometrically sensitive , Sadie Coles HQ , London (2014). Additionally, his work has been included in institutional group exhibitions such as Zhumqposeon , F.E.A , ФАА initiative , Athens (2025); Lygia Clark: The I and the You and Sonia Boyce: An Awkward Relation , Limited Editions , Whitechapel Gallery , London, (2024); Cruella De- vil , Galerie Sultana , Paris (2024); The Rough Grace Of A Bard , FLATS , Brussels (2024); 118½ , Emalin , London, (2024); Primary Forms: III edition , Museum of Modern Art , Warsaw (2023 ) ; HISTÓRIA(S) DA ARTE , Serralves , Porto (2022); Breaking The Waves , Chi K11 Art Museum , Shanghai (2021); Everyday Poetics , Seattle Art Museum , Seattle (2017); Frucht & Faulheit , Lothringer13 Halle , Munich (2017); IMAGINE BRAZIL , Astrup Fearnley Museet , Oslo and Musee d ’Art Contemporain de Lyon , Lyon (2014); Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today , Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum , New York (2014).