Bela Silva

It was during her years in the United States that Bela Silva first began to reflect on, and feel nostalgia for, Portugal’s architectural heritage and her native country’s use of tiles in the production of art. It was this burgeoning appreciation for such remarkable architectural gems as the Fronteira Palace, the Alcobaça monastery’s kitchen, and the Convent of Christ in Tomar, that led to her enduring fascination with ceramic tiles and to establish her practice Sintra. Bela Silva has worked in this historic city now for over 25 years, and it is here that she produced the two remarkable vertical panels Maison Gerard currently has on display. For these, Brazilian cultural heritage has been every bit as important as that of Silva’s native Portugal. She is inspired by its literature—by Carlos Drummond de Andrade and Clarisse Lispector—by its music—Chico Buarque, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and Rita Lee—but above all, by the natural wonder of the Amazon—its forests, birds, and indigenous tribes. In fact these latest works are, as Gonçalo Conceição has said, odes “to fauna and flora, to the theme of nature that is always so well represented in her work.”