BELLEZA Photograph

Australian-born, Grace Costa has spent the past 20+ years building her career as a commercial photographer and most recently, a photo-based artist. She has built a multi-award-winning portfolio in this time. In 2014, “Portrait of Minika” ensured a finalist position for Grace in the prestigious National Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Grace’s heart lies with contemporary portraiture where she is best known for her striking yet hyperreal portraits of horses, developed from her history with horses growing up where she learned everything from her father, a well-respected horse trainer of 50 years. She has turned equine art on its head and brought it into the 21st century with contemporary and imaginative portraits of the horses she so carefully selects for her collections. She was unable to find contemporary and stylish art that represented the way she saw horses so she created what she wanted from her own imagination. ‘HORSE’ has captured the hearts of many, being her most successful exhibition while it travelled around Australia. The success of HORSE led her to presenting a TEDx Canberra talk titled ‘Finding your creative truth through personal story’ in 2017. Grace has achieved multiple industry awards and featured in numerous respected Australian publications, such as Photo Review, Equine Magazine, The Eye Creative & Art Edit magazine and in 2019 will add film producing to her portfolio as she launches her first ever short film based around her father’s story with horses, The Narrabundah Boy.