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).

His sculptures feature in major collections worldwide, namely Fondation Giacometti, Paris, France; Fundação Luso-Americana para o Desenvolvimento, Lisboa, Portugal; Fundação de Serralves, Porto, Portugal; Centro de Arte Moderna da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisboa, Portugal; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain ; Chiltern Sculpture Trust, Oxford, United Kingdom; Museu do Chiado, Lisboa, Portugal; Museo Extremeño y Ibero-Americano de Arte Contemporâneo, Badajoz, Spain; European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium; Europäisches Patentamt, Munich, Germany; Fundación Caixa Galicia, A Coruña, Spain; Colecção Fundação EDP, Lisboa, Portugal; Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem, Netherlands; Palácio Nacional da Pena, Sintra, Portugal; Jenoptik AG, Jena, Germany; Colecção Cachola – Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Elvas, Elvas, Portugal; Colección Helga de Alvear, Madrid / Cáceres, Spain; Museum Folkwang Essen, Essen, Germany ; Esbjerg Kunstmuseum, Esbjerg, Belgium; MAM – Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; De Bruin – Heijn Collection, Amsterdam, Netherlands;

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