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About Sophya
About Sophya
Sophya Acosta is an Argentine lighting designer, light artist, researcher, and educator based in Barcelona. Founder of Sophya Acosta Lighting Design Studio and Light.Lab, her practice explores light as material, language, and experience across architecture, stage, live shows, broadcasting, and light art.
Her work moves between artistic research, spatial perception, and technical precision, approaching light not only as a tool for visibility but as a medium capable of shaping atmosphere, emotion, rhythm, and meaning.
Biography
Biography
Born in San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina, in 1994, Sophya Acosta developed her practice through a multidisciplinary artistic background that includes sculpture, printmaking, acting, dance, and music. This early formation shaped her understanding of light as a performative, spatial, and emotional material.
She holds a degree in Stage Lighting Design from Universidad Nacional de las Artes in Argentina and is currently a PhD candidate in Arts and Techno-Aesthetics at Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero. Alongside her university studies, she pursued international training in Europe, including a semester in Scenography at the prestigious Institut del Teatre in Barcelona.
As a lighting designer, Sophya has worked on dance, theatre, opera, live shows, broadcasting, and architectural projects in Argentina and Europe. In parallel with her research in theatrical lighting, she has developed light-based installations presented in cultural events such as La Noche de los Museos in Buenos Aires and La Nit dels Museus in Barcelona.
Her installation piece Siete Puertas received the Emerging Artist Award at the AJÁ! 2018 Young Artists Competition, organized by Museo Urbano Poggi in Rafaela, Santa Fe. Her photograph Desde la mujer was also selected as a finalist in the 4th Artificial Lighting Photography Competition at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.
Her professional background includes work and collaborations across performing arts, live entertainment, broadcasting, education, and architectural lighting. She has been connected to international projects and institutions, including Cirque du Soleil at Sea, Olympic Broadcasting Services for Paris 2024, EINA, La Salle - Ramon Llull, LIT Lighting Design Awards, APDI, AAIV, ADEA, CICAT, and other professional lighting and design networks.
Her work and perspective have been featured in specialized media, awards platforms, educational institutions, and international lighting communities.
Get to know her more
Get to know her more
Lighting Designer, Light Artist, and Educator
Lighting Designer, Light Artist, and Educator
Sophya Acosta develops lighting projects across different scales and contexts: from architectural spaces and luxury environments to stage productions, live shows, broadcasting projects, and immersive light experiences. Her practice is rooted in the idea that light is both a material and a language. Through contrast, color, shadow, movement, and time, she creates visual narratives that transform the way people perceive and inhabit space.
Working between creative direction, technical development, and artistic research, Sophya brings together the sensitivity of the stage, the precision of architectural lighting, and the experimental field of light art.
Light as Material, Language and Experience
Light as Material, Language and Experience
Sophya’s research explores the role of light as a primary material for artistic creation. Her doctoral work focuses on the relationship between lighting technology, control systems, and the creative environment of Light Art.
This approach informs both her artistic and professional practice. Whether designing for a stage, a façade, a retail environment, a private residence, or an installation, Sophya understands light as a living element: something that appears, disappears, moves, transforms, and reveals.
Her work investigates how light can become presence, narrative, and experience.
Founder of Sophya Acosta Lighting Design Studio
Founder of Sophya Acosta Lighting Design Studio
In 2019, Sophya founded Sophya Acosta Lighting Design Studio, an international lighting design practice based between Barcelona and Buenos Aires.
The studio works across three main fields: Light Art & Experiences, Entertainment Lighting, and Architectural & Residential Lighting.
Through these areas, the studio develops lighting concepts, technical documentation, control strategies, and visual experiences for cultural, architectural, commercial, and live environments.
The studio’s work is guided by a refined understanding of light as a spatial, emotional, and dramaturgical element. Each project is approached as a precise composition of perception, atmosphere, and time.
Education, Research, and Light.Lab
Education, Research, and Light.Lab
Alongside her studio practice, Sophya is the founder of Light.Lab, a platform dedicated to research, education and experimentation around light as a creative material.
Through courses, laboratories, interviews, and educational programs, Light.Lab creates spaces for designers, artists, technicians, and curious practitioners to explore the artistic, technical, and perceptual dimensions of light.
Sophya’s educational work connects professional lighting practice with artistic research, encouraging a deeper understanding of light beyond its functional use.
Fields of Work
Fields of Work
Entertainment and Live Shows
Entertainment and Live Shows
With a background in stage lighting and live performance, Sophya designs lighting for theatre, concerts, events, broadcasting, and hybrid formats where timing, dramaturgy, and technical control are essential. Her work in entertainment lighting integrates visual composition, cueing, programming logic, and a deep understanding of how light behaves in relation to bodies, music, space, and camera.
Architectural and Residential Lighting
Architectural and Residential Lighting
Sophya develops lighting strategies for architecture, interiors, and private environments, with special attention to atmosphere, materiality, visual comfort, and emotional experience. Her approach to architectural lighting is not limited to illumination levels or fixture placement. It is based on the creation of a spatial narrative where light supports identity, intimacy, rhythm, and perception.
Light Art and Experiences
Light Art and Experiences
Sophya’s artistic research focuses on light as a material capable of creating immersive, contemplative, and transformative experiences. Through installations, light-based artworks, and experiential environments, she explores how light can become both medium and message: a way of perceiving, inhabiting, and questioning space.
A Practice Between Barcelona and Buenos Aires
A Practice Between Barcelona and Buenos Aires
Sophya’s practice is shaped by movement between cities, disciplines, and cultures. Formed between Barcelona and Buenos Aires, her work connects European and Latin American perspectives on art, architecture, performance, and design.
This transatlantic position allows her to develop projects with a broad cultural sensibility, combining artistic depth, technical rigor, and an international understanding of contemporary lighting practice.
Press, Recognition, and External Profiles
Press, Recognition, and External Profiles
Sophya Acosta’s work has been featured in international media, awards, educational institutions, and professional lighting platforms.
Selected references include interviews, profiles, juries, academic pages, press mentions, and professional recognitions related to her work as a lighting designer, light artist, educator, and founder.
Professional Experience
Professional Experience
2019- to present – Founder of Sophya Acosta Lighting Design Studio. The studio has a focus on Theatrical Lighting Design and Light Art Installations, and it is based in Buenos Aires and Barcelona.
2019 – 2020 – Lighting and Video technician at Cirque du Soleil at Sea, MSC Meraviglia.
2016- to present – Design and construction of scenographic lighting fixtures, fixtures’ making, and customization of luminaries for theater and ephemeral architecture, Buenos Aires – Barcelona.
09-2019 – Lighting design for “Beta perpetua” by the company Sin Domicilio Fijo, El excéntrico de la 18°, Buenos Aires.
05-2019 – Lighting design for “Quan deixi de ploure” collective creation, Teatre Plató, Institut del Teatre, Barcelona.
05-2018 – Lighting design for “Hamlet follies” directed by Gemma Beltrán, Teatre Estudi, Institut del Teatre, Barcelona.
05-2018 – Lighting design for “Nada Especial” by the company Pablito No Clavó Nada, Páramo Cultural, Buenos Aires.
04-2019 – Lighting design for “El taita” directed by Gonzalo Quintana, Club Cultural Matienzo, Buenos Aires.
04-2019 – Lighting design for “Jaqueline Hada” directed by Juanse Rauch, Teatro Hasta Trilce, Buenos Aires.
11-2018 – Design of luminic experiences for the workshop “Write with light” by Álvaro Valdecantos, Piramidón Art Gallery, Barcelona.
11-2018 – Lighting design for “Animalet Meu” directed by Jaime Herrera, Matas i Ramis space, Barcelona.
11-2018 – Lighting design reposition for “Nada especial” by Pablito No Clavó Nada company, Teatro Montacargas, Madrid; Nau Bostick, Barcelona; Teatre Porta 4, Barcelona.
10-2018 – Lighting design for “Opus 40”, directed by Bauch, Marechal space, UNA, Buenos Aires.
10-2018 – Lighting design for “@perdro_hashtag”, directed by Andrea Lopez, CC Teatro San Martín, Buenos Aires.
08-2018 Lighting design for the opera “La Voix Humane”, directed by Diego Ávalos, ISA Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires.
08-2018 – Lighting design for “El Taíta”, directed by Gonzalo Quintana, Festival El Porvenir, Club Cultural Matienzo, Buenos Aires.
07-2018 – Lighting design for the opera “La Flauta Mágica”, directed by Susana Yasán, Buenos Aires tour.
05-2018 to 07-2018 – “Siete Puertas”, ligh art piece commissioned by the Dr. Urbano Poggi Art Museum, Rafaela.
05-2018 to 06-2018 – Lighting design for “Bodas de Sangre”, directed by Pablo D’Elias, Ciclo Clasicxs LGBT, Cooperativa Cultural Qi, Buenos Aires.
04-2018 – Lighting design for the opera “Rigoletto” directed by Susana Yasán, Buenos Aires tour.
03-2018 – Lighting design for “Holter”, directed by Pablo D’Elias, Ciclo La velocidad del Fuego, Club Cultural Matienzo, Buenos Aires
03-2018 – Lighting design for “Amor Romántico, excusa feminista” directed by Hansbleidy Lancheros, Ciclo de teatro Panfletarias, Teatro Machado, Buenos Aires.
11-2017 to 12-2017 – Lighting design for “El Cuidador” directed by Adriana Garibaldi, Espacio Teatrito, UNA, Buenos Aires.
11-2017 to 12-2017- Lighting designer assistant “Los siete pecados capitales” (Lighting designer: Sebastián Evangelista) directed by Romina Almirón, Complejo Teatral 25 de Mayo, Buenos Aires.
11-2017 to 12-2017 – Lighting design for “Los Pensamientos” directed by Mora Amigo, Espacio Laboratorio, UNA, Buenos Aires.
08-2017 to 12-2017 – Lighting design for “Conferencia sobre Nada” directed by Pablo D’Elia, Espacio Caffarena, UNA, Buenos Aires.
08-2017 to 10-2017 – Lighting designer assistant “38 S M” (Lighting designer: Eli Sirlin) directed by Laurent Berger, Teatro Nacional Cervantes, Buenos Aires.
06-2017 – Lighting design for “Happy birthday Toñito, o Todos los jóvenes van a morir” directed by Jaime Herrera, Complejo Teatral Institut del Teatre, Barcelona.
06-2017 – Lighting design for “Wash my soul” directed by Carlota Grau, Complejo Teatral Institut del Teatre, Barcelona.
05-2017 – Lighting design, Scenography design and Costume design for“Amor Perdut” directed by Gemma Sangerman, Institut del Teatre, Barcelona.
11-2016 – Lighting design assistant “Cronoluz” (Lighting designer: Sebastián Evangelista), Lighting design Graduation Project, Dpto de Arte Dramáticas – UNA, Buenos Aires.
2016 – Member of the production team of the event “Posta Lumínica: International year of light” , Dpto de Artes Dramáticas - UNA, Buenos Aires.
09-2015 – Lighting designer assistant “Algo que no era” (Lighting designer: Claudio del Bianco), FIBA 2015. Buenos Aires.
09- 2015 – Lighting designer assistant “Pizarniketas Polígrafas” (Lighting designer: Claudio del Bianco), Bienal de Arte Joven de Buenos Aires.
2013-2014 – Lighting design for "El eco de su voz" directed by Gabriela Pérez, Dpto de Artes Dramáticas, UNA, Buenos Aires.
2011 to present – Freelance photographer.
2011 to 2013 – 1st viola by designation, Orquesta Inicial de la Escuela Municipal de Música Remo Pignoni Conducted by Manuel Marina, Rafaela.
2010-2011 – Puppetry of giant puppet; Character design for the inaugural parade, Festival de Teatro. Rafaela.
2011 – Performer, dramatic experimentation, and Street interverion for Êyh! Rafaela.
04-2010 – Production, direction for “Las Propiedades de la leche” Co-production contest for the Festival de Teatro Rafaela 2010, Rafaela.
2020 – Teacher at LIGHT.LAB by Sophya Acosta Lighting Design Studio
2014 to 2019 – Teacher assistant; Sistemas de representación 1, Cátedra Jorge Ferro. Resolución en trámite; UNA, Dpto de Artes Dramáticas.
2014 to 2019 - Teacher assistant; Sistemas de representación 2, Cátedra Jorge Ferro. Resolución en trámite; UNA, Dpto de Artes Dramáticas.
Publications and conferences
Publications and conferences
2020 - Conference “Collective design work: collaborativity and horizontality. How the pandemic allowed us to change our work dynamics” at [d]arc room livestream 2020.
2011 – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nVRIIlzg-1QgF9djE2dyNhbgapID9Tjb/view?usp=sharing“Por qué estudiar ciencias duras”, Instituto Balseiro. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AoMmDFYs-0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUpV1NP3Th4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0Ube2QXBlg
Awards
Awards
2018 – Finalist at 4th Contest of Artificial Lighting’s photography, Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña and iCandela, Magazine, Barcelona.
2018 – Winner of the AJA! Prize with the Light art piece “Siete Puertas”, Dr Urbano Poggi Museum, Rafaela.
2016 – Winner of the Exchange Scholarship UNA-Institut del Teatre, Buenos Aires.
2012 – Special Mention in the cathegory of Fictional Short films, Short film “2.30AM”, ENAVI, Encuentro Nacional Audiovisual de Jóvenes Realizadores, Escuela Universitaria de Cine, Video y Televisión, San Miguel de Tucumán.
2011 - Special Mention “Por qué estudiar ciencias duras”, Instituto Balseiro.
Sophya Acosta on Wikidata: wikidata.org/wiki/Q139566955
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