A set of new sculptures in black iron, shadows that share the negative space with us, dancing to the sound of the wind or of the battle. We step out from the protective half-light to face the first dawn, the violent revelation of morning that will change the rest of our lives. We drink deeply of this light without beginning or end, allowing it to become irreversible within us. The path lies beyond language and words, beyond thought. I believe in everything, I believe in nothing… I believe in nothingness and in the void.

Rui Chafes is one of the most significant contemporary Portuguese sculptors, whom since the late 1980s has been developing a distinctive body of work marked by a poetic and rigorous language. Using predominantly black-painted iron, Rui Chafes creates forms of ethereal spirituality, suspended in a permanent tension between weight and lightness, silence and transcendence.

In 1995 he represented Portugal at the Venice Biennale, in collaboration with José Pedro Croft and Pedro Cabrita Reis. He took part in the 26th São Paulo Biennale (2004) and returned to Venice in 2013 as an invited artist at the Pavilion of the Republic of Cuba during the 55th Biennale. His work has been exhibited at leading institutions such as the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon), Serralves Foundation (Porto), Berardo Collection Museum (Lisbon), Centre Pompidou (Paris), S.M.A.K. (Ghent), Museum Folkwang (Essen), Kunsthallen Nikolaj (Copenhagen), and Fondazione Volume! (Rome).