Espaços inabitados – Rafael Barros

Rafael Barros (BR, 1989) is a visual artist based in Porto. His practice centers primarily on painting, drawing on personal memories, lived experiences, and images found in photographs, postcards, and archives. By reconstructing these images, he explores new relationships between times, places, and experiences, creating compositions and atmospheres where memory and imagination intersect.
He studied Visual Communication at IFSul and Visual Arts at the Federal University of Pelotas in Brazil. Between 2019 and 2023, he served as creative director at the JD Malat Gallery in London and was also active as a curator. In 2026, he participated in the “Porto ao Porto” artist-in-residence project in the city of Porto, whose approach—centered on the observation of cities and artistic currents—has spurred new explorations in his creative process. He has exhibited both solo and in group shows in Portugal and Brazil.