Rafa Silvares Pillars, 2025

Executed in oil on linen, the large scale work depicts an abstract landscape comprised of viscous mounds that appear to unfurl slowly, interrupted only by the crisp contour of a metallic object: a finely polished pipe empties a bulge of viscid silver into the painting’s foreground.

Silvares lovingly paints the shiny metal of his human-made motifs with an eye for precisionist effect and the beauty of their abstract shapes. Together, triangles, rectangles, slivers of black, and shades of gray form the impression of seductive silvery surfaces. The metal is a recurring motif that exerts symbolic power; its hard, lustrous, reflective shell evokes the promise of modernity with its scientistic notions of cleanliness and the antiseptic.