Bela Silva is currently living in Lisbon and Brussels. Studied at both the Porto and the Lisbon Fine Arts Schools in Portugal; attended also Ar.Co, Lisbon, the Norwich Fine Arts in the UK and the School of The Art Institute of Chicago in the USA.

Among her shows: Chicago’s Ann Nathan Gallery (1994) and Rhona Hoffman Gallery (1997); Lisbon’s Tile Museum (1999), Museu Anastácio Gonçalves, Palácio da Ajuda, and Fundação Ricardo Espírito Santo (Lisbon, 2007); and also shows in China and in Japan. She has participated in group shows of tile art in Brazil, Spain, and France; ran ceramics workshops in Japan and Morocco; and has been awarded residencies at Kohler, Wisconsin, USA, and at Fábrica Bordalo Pinheiro, Caldas da Rainha, Portugal. She has created several public art pieces, namely tile panels for the Alvalade subway station in Lisbon; panels for the Sakai Cultural Center’s Gardens in Japan; and panels for the João de Deus School in the Azores Islands.

Her work in ceramics cites and comments on pieces of different heritages, deflecting visual and cultural frameworks with irony, excess or simple stylisation.