Rafa Silvares

Rafa Silvares (b. 1984, Santos, Brazil) is a Berlin-based artist whose vibrant, hyperrealist paintings reimagine everyday industrial and domestic objects as theatrical protagonists in surreal environments. Silvares’ work investigates the tensions between form and function, figuration and abstraction, surface and depth. Using saturated color palettes, reflective surfaces, and mechanical motifs, he creates layered compositions that blur the line between machine and metaphor.

With a background in both fine arts and literature, Silvares draws from architecture, design history, and pop culture, building visual systems where utility becomes desire, and precision meets absurdity. His practice explores the autonomy of objects and their symbolic resonance in a hyper-consumerist, post-industrial world.

Silvares work is held in public and private collections including the Kunstpalais Erlangen (DE), Le Consortium (FR), Space K Museum (KR), and X Museum (CN). He was a 2020 PIPA Prize nominee and has participated in international residencies such as La Centrale (Paris) and The Fores Project (London).