BERLIN.- Esther Schipper announced the representation of Rafa Silvares.
Rafa Silvares was born in 1984 in Santos, Brazil. He holds a BFA from FAAP (Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado), São Paulo and a BA in Language and Literature from the Faculty of Philosophy, Languages, and Human Sciences (FFLCH) at the University of São Paulo. The artist lives and works in Berlin.
In Rafa Silvares's work, time appears arrested and space collapsed onto itself. Amidst the seductiveness of their smooth surface and the visual pleasure of expanses of brilliant color, we have an intuitive understanding of the allegorical nature of his paintings. Their frozen movements evoke the end of the belief in the inherent benefit of progress. The static fluidity of their masses—be they natural formations (water, mud, or lava) or expelled from human-made machinery (pipes, pistons, or washers)—is in a kind of limbo. Caught in the paradox of agitated stillness, liquids overflow, bursting brightly from pistons, pipes, the ground, or the sky. The absence of human depictions in the paintings is counteracted by the feeling of looking at a human-made world. And us: Silvares's paintings seem unusually aware of the onlooker’s presence, even counting on it.
Solace can be found in the objects. Silvares lovingly paints the shiny metal of his human-made motifs with an eye for precisionist effect and the beauty of their abstract shapes. Together, triangles, rectangles, slivers of black, and shades of gray form the impression of seductive silvery surfaces. The metal is a recurring motif that exerts symbolic power; its hard, lustrous, reflective shell evokes the promise of modernity with its scientistic notions of cleanliness and the antiseptic. As with the hyper-seductive surfaces of consumer objects in late capitalism, his paintings are knowing, perhaps even willfully complicit in the intermingling of pain and pleasure. And yet they have an affirmative quality: the silver lining on their melting horizons is a belief in color and shape as forces of renewal.
In November 2025 Jac Leirner and Rafa Silvares will have a joint exhibition at Esther Schipper, Berlin.
The artist was a Pipa Award Nominee in 2020. Among his residencies were in 2021 The Fores Project, London (2021); La Centrale residence, Paris (2018); and Pivô research, Pivô São Paulo (2016). In 2008 the artist participated in the 28th São Paulo Biennial, in collaboration with AVAF.
Recent exhibitions include: Ganz konkret 2, Kunstpalais, Erlangen (2025); L'Almanach 23, curated by Éric Troncy, Le Consortium, Dijon (2023); Real Fake Door, curated by Oli Epp and Mollie E Barnes, Arsenal Contemporary Art, New York (2023); The Artists Contemporary Atelier, London (2021); Monster High, Olhão, São Paulo (2020); 48th Luiz Sacilotto Art Salon, Casa do olhar, Santo André (2020); Bife, Olhão, Sao Paulo (2019); Traço, Platô Studio, São Paulo (2016); Pivô Art Research, Pivô, São Paulo (2016); I Scream, critical follow up of Galciani Neves and Regina Parra, Galpão Glicério, São Paulo (2015); 21th Praia Grande Art Salon, curated by Tobi Maier, Praia Grande (2014); So Confused LOL, curated by Gerardo Contreras, Beo Project, Belgrade (2012); Dizzy World, Paper Box, New York, NY (2013); Parahaus, São Paulo (2011); and Parahaus, São Paulo (2011).
Silvares’s work is held in the following collections: Amoca Museum, Wales, Fundacion Medianoche, Singapore, Kunstpalais, Erlangen, Le Consortium, Dijon, Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing, Space K Museum, Seoul, X Museum, Beijing, Xiao Museum, Rizhao, and Zuzeum Collection, Riga.
