BIO
JOSEPH DESLER COSTA is an American-born artist, photographer, and musician based between Milan, Italy and Brooklyn, NY.
Through various disciplines that include photography, video, new media, and books, Costa’s work examines consumerist dreams, the powers of persuasion, and the origins of desire.
Much of Costa’s recent work takes form as sculptural prints that evoke the machine-made and mass-produced, and follow the artist’s interest in both subverting and embracing the languages of commercial, fashion, and product photography. Oftentimes autobiographical, his work examines the origins of fantasy, the intersections of consumerism and ego, and relationships between longing, selfhood, and purchasing power.
Costa’s works have been exhibited in venues that include Aperture Foundation, The International Center of Photography, the Carnegie Museum of Art, Clamp Art, Foley Gallery, Microscope Gallery, and Transformer Station, among others, and his work has been published and written about widely in publications that include Artforum, Photograph Magazine, ArtNews, Dear Dave, Provokr, Der Grief, and Aperture Magazine, among others. In Costa’s commercial practice, he has produced commissions for clients that include New York Times, Vogue, Newsweek, Honda Motors, Nike, and Oakley, among others.
His first monograph, Say Yes, will be published by SPBH Editions in Fall, 2023. Costa teaches at the School of Visual Arts, The International Center of Photography, and Parsons in New York City, as well as the Instituto Europeo di Design in Milan. Since 2014, he has been Founder and Director of Silent Face Projects, an artist-run publishing collective supporting production of new media and lens-based artist books.
Instagram: @josephdeslercosta