Fernando Costa

This is the first book on the work of Fernando Costa (b. 1972), an eclectic, self-taught French artist. Costa works in an unusual medium: He collects damaged street signs and cuts them up, smooths them down, and reassembles them, welding the pieces onto large metal plaques to create energetic, colorful works of extraordinary originality. Some of the works are figurative, echoing Pop Art, moments from the artist's life, or people who have influenced him, such as the Beatles, the British cyclist Tom Simpson, or Josephine Baker. Other works flirt with abstraction derived from cubism and the mechanical music of Edgard Varèse. In 2013, he was the 18th artist selected to create the Art Car for the 24 Hours of Le Mans car race, following in the footsteps of Calder, Warhol, and Koons. See more at www.artsy.net/artist/fernando-costa-aka-costa