Lenz publishes books on contemporary art, photography, architecture and design.
Our imprint includes catalogues, monographs, theory and artist books.
The artist’s book to love and devour by Tolia Astakhishvili was published on the occasion of the inaugural exhibition at the new site of the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation in Venice, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist.
This monograph, published on the occasion of Samson Young’s exhibition at SFMOMA, focuses on his latest project, Intentness and Songs, a multimedia installation that poetically traces the idiosyncratic rhythms of love, memory, experiences of time, and AI. Essays and a rich set of unpublished materials offer new keys to understanding the artist’s work.
The book, published on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition held at CAM – Gulbenkian in Lisbon, explores convergences in the work of Paula Rego (Lisbon, 1935 – London, 2022) and Adriana Varejão (Rio de Janeiro, 1964), although they belong to different generations and come from different backgrounds.
O livro, lançado por ocasião da exposição homónima no CAM – Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian, em Lisboa, explora as convergências nas obras de Paula Rego (Lisboa, 1935 – Londres, 2022) e Adriana Varejão (Rio de Janeiro, 1964), apesar de pertencerem a gerações e contextos distintos.
The future of architecture lies in the curatorial approach. This is the thesis put forward by architect Wilfried Kuehn and theorist Dubravka Sekulić in their book, which brings together contributions from more than 30 authors working in the fields of architecture, art, and curatorial knowledge and practice.
Emanuele Coccia describes the radical creative freedom inscribed in Ernesto Neto’s practice, analyzing the workings of the Brazilian artist’s pieces of living architecture. Art on Earth is the third book in a series of short essay collections inspired by the site-specific projects conceived for GAMeC at Palazzo della Ragione.
Edited by Adriano Costa with Stefano Cernuschi
Texts by Fernanda Brenner, Milovan Farronato, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Adriano Costa
Designed by Tommaso Garner
2025, English, hardcover, 27 x 20 cm, 432 pages
ISBN 979-12-80579-78-2
In a practice now spanning three decades, Adriano Costa has embodied a playful yet critical approach to materiality, form, and social context. Working primarily with found and everyday objects, the artist transforms discarded materials—such as fabrics, furniture, metal, and plastic—into sculptural assemblages that question notions of value, taste, and authorship. His process often embraces imperfection, humor, and spontaneity, creating works that appear casual or improvised but carry deep social and cultural resonance. Costa’s art merges the aesthetics of resourcefulness and informality found in urban street life with a conceptual critique of global consumer culture.
Beauty and meaning can emerge from the overlooked or the broken: Costa’s installations and assemblages often evoke a sense of fragility and transience, emphasizing the impermanent and the handmade. Through this, Costa challenges the hierarchies of art production and the fetishization of the “finished” artwork. His use of found materials also reflects broader political and economic realities, particularly in Brazil, where scarcity and creativity often coexist. Ultimately, Adriano Costa’s work is a meditation on transformation—of objects, meanings, and systems of value—inviting viewers to reconsider what is discarded, both materially and socially.
This unprecedented catalogue collects over 300 pieces listed in alphabetical order—titles are a key part of Costa’s works—alongside new writing by Fernanda Brenner and Milovan Farronato, two critics who have long followed and championed the artist’s practice.
Photos: Nicola Gnesi