Julia da Costa

Artist

Julia da Costa

Júlia Da Costa is a French clinical psychologist and visual artist currently based in Lisbon, Portugal. Her practice sits at the intersection of art and psychology, with each discipline deeply informing the other. Her illustrations and comics explore human emotion, mental health, identity, feminism, and self-care, while her clinical work specializes in trauma, women's mental health, and the socio-political dimensions of well-being.

She is a visual artist whose work sits between illustration and comics, with a style that is "mostly sarcastic and sometimes positive". Her art focuses on feminism, women's mental health, and the complexities of human emotion. Her inspiration is drawn from everyday life, human relationships, and the emotional connections she observes. She explores themes such as mental health, identity, feminism, and self-care with a distinctive voice that is both insightful and approachable.

She has created the "Psycho Club," a series of comics zines dedicated to making mental health topics more accessible to the public. Each issue pairs a mini graphic novel with an explanatory text on a specific theme. The first one, Pompette, explores the theme of alcoholism. The zine breaks down the science of alcohol's effects on the body and mind, examines the social dynamics of drinking (particularly how wine is used as a tool for social integration), and offers a sharp feminist critique of the gendered double standards surrounding women who drink—challenging the stigma, rape culture, and social hierarchies perpetuated by media portrayals. She also illustrated this book by Jorge Pinto, published by Penguin (under the Iguana imprint), published in 2026.

She is currently developing a comic book and an animated short movie, expanding her narrative-driven illustration work.

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