Bela Silva
Bela Silva with solo exhibition in April at the Niterói Museum of Contemporary Art
(Rio de Janeiro)
Born in 1966, Bela Silva graduated from Faculdade de Belas Artes in Lisbon and Porto, as well as studying ceramics at Ar.Co Lisboa. Since these formative years, she has enjoyed a fine artistic career, both in Portugal and internationally. In 2024, she makes her debut at the Niterói Museum of Contemporary Art in Brazil, presenting her most recent work.
Dividing her time between Lisbon and Brussels, Silva has exhibited at the Ann Nathan and Rhona Hoffman galleries in Chicago, the Museu do Azulejo (Tile Museum) and the Anastácio Gonçalves, Palácio da Ajuda and Ricardo Espírito Santo museums in Lisbon. Her work has also featured at various exhibitions in China and Japan, as well as collective exhibitions in Belgium (Kleureyck, Design Museum Gent, Lille 3000), Brazil, Spain and France (Vallauris Biennale). Other endeavours include giving ceramics workshops in Japan and Morocco, in addition to outstanding public art, which includes tile murals in Lisbon's Alvalade metro station, ceramic panels for the Sakai Cultural Centre gardens in Japan and the João de Deus School in the Azores. She was also involved in the Next of Europe event with Spazio Nobile, which was presented by Jean Blanchaert & Stefano Boeri at Homo Faber, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, Italy, in spring 2022.
This year, Silva makes her debut at the iconic Niterói Museum of Contemporary Art, which has become one of Brazil’s largest centres for contemporary art, and was originally designed by the renowned architect Oscar Niemeyer in the 1990s. Represented by the Belgian Spazio Nobile Gallery, the artist brings her most recent work to Rio de Janeiro for a solo exhibition this spring.
