Bela Silva
Bela Silva was born in Lisbon, Portugal. She lives and works in Brussels, Lisbon, and Paris.
She studied at the Schools of Fine Arts in Porto and Lisbon, as well as at Ar.Co in Portugal. She continued her artistic training at the Norwich School of Art in the United Kingdom and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the United States.
Throughout his career, his work has been exhibited at numerous museums and galleries, including the Museu Nacional do Azulejo, the Museu Anastácio Gonçalves, the Palácio Nacional da Ajuda, the Fundação Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva, the Museu do Oriente, the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. His works have also been exhibited in China, Japan, Brazil, Spain, France, and South Korea.
Bela Silva has participated in artist residencies at Kohler Co. in Wisconsin, United States, as well as at the Fábrica Bordallo Pinheiro in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal. In 2022, her works were exhibited at Villa Tamaris as part of the France–Portugal Cultural Exchange Season. More recently, she exhibited at the Palácio Cadaval in 2023 and presented the solo exhibition *Caminho Tropical* at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói in the spring of 2024.
Art in public spaces plays an important role in her practice. She has created several monumental installations integrated into architecture and the landscape, including the azulejo panels at the Alvalade station of the Lisbon Metro, panels for the gardens of the Sakai Cultural Center, and works commissioned for the João de Deus School in the Azores. She has also created numerous commissioned works for private collectors in Europe and the United States.
Throughout her career, Bela Silva has collaborated with leading international houses and brands such as Hermès, Tiffany & Co., Serax, Viúva Lamego, Bordallo Pinheiro, and Vista Alegre. In November 2021, she presented a collection of hand-painted porcelain in Paris, created in collaboration with the Florentine manufacturer Ginori 1735.
Travel is an inexhaustible source of inspiration in Bela Silva’s work. Drawing on the stories, cultures, and landscapes she discovers around the world, she develops a visual language that celebrates the dialogue between communities and identities. By reinterpreting traditions, craftsmanship, and vernacular motifs from a resolutely contemporary perspective, she creates works that are both rooted in the memory of places and deeply personal.
