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BIO

         Laila Marie Costa is visual artist, jeweller, zine publisher, curator and musician, born in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia, & living in Hasselt, Belgium.

 

         Her working process is based on collecting the waste and refuse of consumer culture and allowing the materials to infer the form. The debris is sorted and arranged by various time tested and obsessive methodologies. She works across collage, assemblage, installation, jewellery and occasionally sound. Her creations are informed by her heritage, domesticity, feminism, environmental issues, art history, materiality and humour. The nebulous spaces between fine art, craft and design are the areas of that intrigue and inspire the bulk of her investigations.

 

        She completed a Bachelor of Fine at R.M.I.T in 1992 and a Graduate Diploma in Visual Arts at the Victoria College of the Arts in 2003. Costa has taught at Swinburne University in the Arts and Supported Learning departments and as a gallery consultant at Studio Ingot. In 2016 she was awarded the Italian Services Institute Australia International Fellowship to study micro-mosaic and macro art projects in Italy and Barcelona. She currently works as a project manager and curator for community art programs based in judicial buildings.

 

         In 2018 Costa co-founded TempContemp, a contemporary jewellery project space within Northcity4, Brunswick, where she was a studio artist until December 2019. TempContemp is now a nomadic entity and she is currently an artist in residence at East Brunswick Village.

 

        Costa has exhibited locally and internationally, predominantly in artist run initiatives and completed an artist in residence in Argentina in 2012. In 2020 she was selected for group exhibitions in Russia and China.

 

Her jewellery is stocked at Studio Ingot, Melbourne.

C.V.

 

EDUCATION

 

2023         MASieraad: Master of Visual Arts (Jewellery Design), PXL-MAD, Hasselt, Belgium

 

2003        Graduate Diploma of Visual Arts, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne

 

19932       Bachelor of Fine Arts, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne

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SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

 

2023         International Graduate Show, Galerie Marzee, Nijmegen, Netherlands

                 Salon De Lavage, FAX, Hasselt, Belgium

                 Exit Extended 2023, Multiple, Hasselt, Belgium

                 International Graduate Show, Galerie Marzee, Nijmegen, Netherlands

                 MASieraad Masters Graduate Exhibition, Looiersgracht 60, Amsterdam. Netherlands

                 Show You What We Got, Galerij De Ware Vrienden, Hasselt, Belgium

                 Contained/Uncontained (with Handshake Project and Dialogue Collective), Nelson Jewellery Week Nelson, Aotearoa/New                       Zealand

                 Potluck: Burp, Alte-Westend-Apotheke, Munich Jewellery Week, Munich, Germany

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2022         A Word After a Word, Baltimore Jewelry Center, Baltimore, U.S.A

                 PotLuck, Alte-Westend-Apotheke, Munich Jewellery Week, Munich, Germany

                 Containment/Uncontained; working across borders - HSDCTC-colab, Pah Homestead, Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand.                         HSDCTC-colab is a collaboration project between artist groups HANDSHAKE (NZ), Dialogue Collective (UK) and                                       TempContemp (AU)­­­­

 

2021         Jewellery and Nature, Tincallab, Porto, Portugal

                 Beijing International Jewellery Art Exhibition, Beijing, China

                 Double Yellow Lines Contemporary Jewelry about borders, Krasnoyarsk Book Culture Fair & Winzavod                                                         Contemporary Art Center, Moscow, Russia

                 Hearts and Flowers, Brooklyn Metal Works, New York City, U.S.A

                 Dlug – Dlog, Udstillingssted for Tekstil, Copenhagen, Denmark

 

2020         SeaShape, Cook St Gallery, Flinders, Australia

                 Noel Counihan Commerative Art Award (finalist), The Counihan Gallery, Brunswick, Australia

                 Chinese Mythology, Vonmo Studio, Beijing, China

                 9 March, Ground Solyanka, Moscow, Russia

                 Growth & Evolution, Yesheng Art & Design Center, Shanghai & DBC International Designer Space, Beijing, China

 

2019         Schmuck, Internationale Handwerksmesse, Munich, Germany

                 Body Control, Museum Arnhem, Arnhem, The Netherlands

                 Collectiva, Porto, Portugal

                 SeaShape, Vitrine, Craft Victoria, Melbourne, Australia

                 Lo Fi High, Toot Gallery, St.Kilda, Melbourne, Australia

                 In The Drawer, Small Space Gallery, Nth. Fitzroy (part of Radiant Pavilion Biennial)

                 NC4EVA, The Counihan Gallery foyer, Brunswick, Melbourne, Australia

 

2018         #fail #success, Icons at Play, New York City Jewellery Week, New York, U.S.A

                 Do you Copy? TempContemp, Melbourne, Australia

                  I Hate Contemporary Jewellery, TempContemp, Melbourne, Australia

                 SeaShape, Bridget Kennedy project Space, East Sydney, Australia

                 14 Benches and One Overworked Microwave, Craft Victoria, Melbourne, Australia

 

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

 

2018         The Mindful Bricoleur and the Various Mid Life Parallel Universe that may or may not include Wearables, Black Finch,                                 Northcote, Melbourne, Australia

 

2017         RUN LMC Collection, Gallery 20/17, North Sydney, Sydney, Australia

 

AWARDS, GRANTS and RESIDENCIES

 

2020         Creative Victoria, Sustaining Creative Worker Grant

2019         Moreland City Council, Arts Investment Grant

2016         Italian Australian Foundation Fellowship, International Specialised Skills Institute

 

COLLECTIONS

 

Bailieu Library, The University of Melbourne                  Box Hill Institute of T.A.F.E

Brunswick Business Incubator                                         Octapod, Newcastle

Rare Books, State Library of Victoria                               Private Collections internationally

    

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