Rui Soares Costa (b. 1981) studied Painting at Ar.Co while training and researching in Social Psychology between Portugal and the US.
2013 marks the professional change from being an academic researcher in Social Cognition and Social Neuroscience to become a full time visual artist, with the first exhibition project dating back to 2016. Since 2020, Rui has become progressively comfortable with the idea of connecting his artistic research and practice with his environmental and sustainability thinking and activism. 2021 marks the beginning of the _Rising series_ project, generally addressing the Anthropocene and one of the main issues of contemporaneity – the Climate Crisis – more specifically, the rising sea levels.
During 2024 Rui started to work on video as duo with André Gonçalves (RSC & AG).
His current research and artistic practice revolve around time. He is interested in the perception (not representation) of time by manipulating its suspension, distension and compression. Time as a pivotal construct, a variable that can be played with, like a parameter in an equation.
Rui’s research and work is organized in series. Each series is an open ended route, not a specific project in time but an active line of work in constant dialogue with the other series.
The concepts and principles around which Rui’s work gravitates deal with parsimony, minimalism, nothingness, seminality, nature and materiality. His work frequently takes place in co-creation with the surrounding context.
Rui works closely with contemporary music and his exhibitions projects always have original soundtracks. Rui has established a close collaboration with the musician and multimedia artist André Gonçalves.
In 2016 he started Bull’s Eye – Artist in Residence Program at his studio in Olho de Boi. More than fifty artists, most of them international, have participated so far.
Rui’s work is part of collections in Germany, India, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland as well as Coleção Manuel de Brito (PT), Berardo collection (PT), José Costa Rodrigues collection (PT), Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal collection (PT), Museo de Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo de Santander y Cantabria (MAS) (ES), Colección de Mouro Producciones (ES) and Art Fairs collection (ES).
He is represented by Salgadeiras Contemporary Art in Lisbon, Portugal and Untagged Art, Seville, Spain.
Lives and works between Lisbon and Olho de Boi.
