Painter, School of the Museum of Fine Arts and Tufts University

Da Costa lays patterns in black over patterns in bright colors that address the artist's childhood in war-torn Angola.

By the time he was 14, both of his parents had been killed. After he was shot in an attack on his orphanage, doctors gave him art supplies as he rehabbed his wounded arm.

Homeless when he first came to Boston five years ago, Da Costa has already found gallery representation, with Gallery NAGA on Newbury Street.