Leo Costeolloe (b. 1993, Canberra) is a London-based, Irish-Australian interdisciplinary artist whose work explores the transient and sentimental nature of objects in contemporary culture. Drawing from a zeitgeist of digital femininity, Costelloe’s sculptural practice uses glass, silver, hair and more to infuse banal items with complex emotional and symbolic resonance, informed by the artist’s rural childhood in Australia and grinding coming-of-age in the East London queer scene. With recurring leitmotifs including bows, dolls, stars and flowers, Costelloe’s practice recasts familiar decorative signifiers to reframe an object’s presupposed meanings.
Costelloe has presented solo exhibitions at Ridley Road Project Space, London (2022) and Kupfer, London (2023), and a two-person show at Guts Gallery, London (2023) curated by Helen Neven. Their work has been featured in group exhibitions at Studio West Gallery, London (2024); Indigo + Madder, London (2023); The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, Leeds (2023); General Assembly, London (2023); Kupfer, London (2023); Photobook Gallery, London (2023); Ridley Road Project Space, London (2022).
Costelloe has worked with a variety of brands and institutions including ShowStudio, The British Fashion Council and Dover Street Market, New York. They were awarded the Swarovski Scholar Award (2020) after having been a finalist for the same in 2019. Costelloe graduated from Central Saint Martins with a BA (Hons) in Jewellery Design.