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.
Born in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia, and currently residing in Hasselt, Belgium
EDUCATION
2023 MASieraad: Master of Visual Arts (Contemporary Jewellery Design), PXL-MAD,
Hasselt, Belgium
2003 Graduate Diploma of Visual Arts, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne
1992 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne
PROFESSIONAL ENGAGEMENT
2018- Co-founder and director of TempContemp gallery: Bricks and mortar gallery space August 2018 until November 2019, and since, a Nomadic Project Space
2019-20 Artist Mentor, Arts Access Victoria, Arts and Disability, Melbourne
2015-21 Studio artist at jewellery studio, Northcity4, Brunswick, Melbourne
2015-20 Curator, Urban Campfires Community Arts Project, Belgium Avenue Neighbourhood House, Richmond, Melbourne
2006-15 Sessional teacher at Art and Design, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne
2012-15 Gallery consultant, Studio Ingot, Fitzroy, Melbourne
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 Ressurt-ACT, Westend Apotheek, Munich Jewelllery Week, Germany
Particle(s), MAD Brussels, Brussels Jewellery Week, Brussels, Belgium (April)
Wearing RED; Ignite the Fire, Charon Kransen Arts, Patina Gallery, Santa Fe New Mexico, U.S.A (April)
2023 In Flux, Liesbeth den Besten’s Cabinet, Amstelveen, Netherlands
Wearing RED; Ignite the Fire, Charon Kransen Arts, New York City (as part of NYC Jewelry Week 2023)
Show Us Yours, We’ll Show Them, Kalf. Space, Hasselt, Belgium
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
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 Handshake Project, Te Pah Homestead, Auckland, New Zealand
Jewellery and Nature, Tincallab, Porto, Portugal
Beijing International Jewellery Art Exhibition, Beijing, China
Double Yellow Lines Contemporary Jewelry about borders: geographical, political, cultural, 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, 9 March; Chelyabinsk State Museum of Fine Arts, Chelyabinsk and Exhibition Centre of St. Petersburg Union of Artists, St. Petersburg, 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
Friends and Family, Daine Singer Gallery, Fitzroy, 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
2016 Random Acts of Necklace, Small Space Jewellery, North Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia
2015 Who’s Afraid of Blue, White and Yellow? H & H Plating, Melbourne, Australia (part of Radiant Pavilion Biennial)
AWARDS, GRANTS and RESIDENCIES
2024 Three-month Artist in Residence at DIVA, museum for diamonds, jewellery and silver, Antwerp, Belgium (Upcoming)
2024 Erasmus Traineeship, six months with jeweler Ralph Bakker, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2020 Creative Victoria, Sustaining Creative Worker Grant
2019 Moreland City Council, Arts Investment Grant
2016 Italian Australian Foundation Fellowship, International Specialised Skills Institute
2014 Study grant, International Lab of Communication, Ente Friuli nel Mondo,
Gemona, Italy
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
GALLERY REPRESENTATION
Studio Ingot, Melbourne, Australia
Charon Kransen Arts, New York City, U.S.A