Internationally acclaimed artist Bela Silva is a whirlwind of creative energy. It informs not only her work but the way she lives her life. Raised in Lisbon, she left Portugal at an early age, drawn by an insatiable curiosity and a desire to experience creativity in all its forms. Studies in Chicago and twelve formative years in New York became defining chapters in her journey. Today, she divides her time between Lisbon, Paris and Brussels. It was in the Belgian capital that we stepped inside her exuberant studio—a place as colourful and expressive as the artist herself.
"I left Lisbon quite young because, at the time, it was still a rather conservative place," Silva says. "I went on to study at the Art Institute of Chicago, where the atmosphere couldn't have been more different. There was a tremendous sense of openness. I was encouraged to attend almost any class I wanted, so I explored everything—even shoe design. After six years there, I spent another six years in New York. Every day felt like an adventure, especially when it came to finding a way to pay the bills." She laughs. "But the people I met there were extraordinary. Those encounters shaped me profoundly, both as an artist and as a person."
Brussels entered her life through love. "That's why I ended up here, although the love story itself didn't have the happiest ending," she says with characteristic candour. Today, she lives and works in the historic Sablon district, surrounded by antique dealers and flea markets that remind her of childhood walks through Lisbon. "Brussels—and Belgium in general—is an extraordinary cultural hub. Sometimes I don't think Belgians realise quite how rich and vibrant their own cultural scene really is."
Her studio reflects that same vibrant outlook. The walls are painted in saturated shades of terracotta and deep blue—a conscious response to Belgium's famously grey skies. They also provide the perfect backdrop for her expressive, highly personal visual language.
"My work is wild because I am," she says. "I've never been a conventional woman, which perhaps explains why marriage hasn't always come naturally to me." She laughs again. "I have strong opinions and I've never been someone who simply agrees with everyone else. That independence inevitably finds its way into my work."
Ceramics has remained the constant throughout her career. "I discovered it when I was eighteen, while studying at the art academy in Lisbon. At the time, ceramics wasn't considered serious art in Portugal. It certainly wasn't Fine Art with capital letters. In Chicago, that distinction simply didn't exist. That's one of the reasons I fell even more deeply in love with the medium. The possibilities are almost endless. Clay can become anything—from a single tile to a monumental sculpture."
While her luminous palette immediately evokes the Mediterranean, Silva's artistic influences extend far beyond Portugal. "I'm endlessly fascinated by the colours of Belgian painters such as Memling, Van Eyck and Ensor. But inspiration comes from everywhere. It can be the Baroque façades of Lisbon, fashion, archaeology or a work of art I've just encountered. Creatively speaking, I'm probably only a quarter Portuguese." She smiles. "I'm much more like a colourful cocktail."
Symbolism quietly runs through much of Silva's work. For the lighting collection she designed for Serax, she introduced an Ancient Greek motif: a meandering line representing eternity. Birds appear throughout many of her objects as enduring symbols of freedom.
"To me, ornament is never merely decorative," she explains. "It always carries meaning."
That symbolic vocabulary reflects her wider worldview. Silva is, above all, a cosmopolitan. For her, the world remains an inexhaustible source of beauty, and creativity is something that should never recognise borders.
"I'm also drawn to imperfection," she says. "A piece should always retain a certain roughness. That's my fingerprint. The moment something becomes too polished or too perfect, I lose interest. I feel exactly the same after leaving the hairdresser when my hair is too neat. The first thing I do is run my hands through it. I don't want to look overly proper—and I don't want my work to, either."
Alongside ceramics, drawing has always been Silva's most faithful companion. More often than not, every ceramic piece begins life as a sketch. Ideas arrive without warning. "Sometimes I'm lying in bed when suddenly a flood of images starts flowing through my mind. I have to get up and draw immediately before they disappear." She has been drawing for as long as she can remember. "As a child, I adored Disney films. The worst punishment my father could give me was forbidding me to watch cartoons. It made me absolutely furious." She laughs.
