Painting · Jewelry and Wearable Art
Rafael Costa
Recife, Brazil
“The eye can hear a painting before the mind gives it a name.”
Biography
Rafael Costa came to painting through stage design and hand-painted carnival banners. His compact abstractions combine muscular brushwork with carefully measured areas of still color.
Artist statement
Rhythm is my subject. I use interruption, repetition, and color pressure to make a painting feel as if it is arriving all at once.
In the studio
Costa begins with thumbnail notations made during city walks, then enlarges their rhythms without preserving their literal forms. Oil, wax, and dry pigment are worked with broad knives and cloth. Small brooches translate the measured interruptions of his paintings into joined metal planes.
