Gustavo Costa Fernandes

Bio
I was born in Porto, Portugal, in 1983. Having graduated from Central Saint Martins (London) in 2008, I have maintained an art practice since, focusing on painting and printmaking (mainly
mono-prints). In parallel I have collaborated with
the Tate and Whitechapel Gallery on book editions and exhibitions of the work of such artists as Malevich, Mark Dion, or Giacometti. I have exhibited at the Bankside, Menier and Coningsby galleries
in London.
Statement
My current practice focuses on painting and printmaking. I often take figurative subjects to intuitive places of expression, with as much of
an intuitive and emotional charge as each specific scene can take. I often try to turn banal situations into more ambiguous, universal and symbolic condition. Off the monoprint work, my painting practice enables me to approach the same subjects, through a different set of responsive parameters
and a longer period of intervention.
For this I employ figures and portraits and focus on transferring their uniqueness into an almost universal representational code. The banal, the corny, the fringed, the scared, and the totally opposite. Its all made of contradictions, since the underground is always targeted by the mainstream.

2008 – currently
Artist’s studio practice
2008 – 2021
Group and solo exhibitions in London and
Porto, including galleries such as Bankside,
Menier, Coningsby and Dentro.
2008 – 2017
Collaborated with the Tate and Whitechapel
Gallery on the design of book editions and
exhibitions, and promotion.
2014 – 2016
Associate lecturer at Ravensbourne University.
2010
Invited lecturer and tutor at ESAD School
of Arts and Design, Portugal.
2006 – 2008
MA with distinction at Central Saint Martins,
London, UK.
2001 – 2006
BA with distinction at ESAD, Portugal