>Costa breaks into pieces public road signs to create his own compositions, bursting interdiction to define new possibilities. His transgressive art is an act of freedom. Metal or enamel signs arecut into small parts, distorted and re-organised like a jigsaw on a metal frame. These re-constructions raise the question of the perpetuation of
established norms and the possibility to evolve whilst recycling cultural heritage.
Costa’s color palette is infinite. Limited originally to the primary colors of public signage, his artworks display richer nuances as a result of the wear of time: red becomes vermillion, yellow fades, black turns into grey and blue into granite… Costa’s color palette has a unique personality: the patina of maturity.
Fernando Costa was born in 1970 in Sarlat. He is the sixth of a seven- children Portuguese family and a self-taught artist. He started his adultlife saling around the world, working on board of the prestigious QueenElizabeth II. During a stop in Los Angeles, he witnessed people pickingup a ‘speed limit’ sign to use it as a picnic table. This scene amused him. But behind the smile, the soul of the hidden artist had just started to thrill! A few years later, in 1998 back to Sarlat in a small weldingworkshop, Fernando became Costa - and embarked on an incredibly creative journey…
Costa 'deconstructions'
