From Rhythm to Color: A Musical Ensemble by Jac Leirner and Rafa Silvares in Berlin
Is art an act of collection and a search for a shared rhythm? Esther Schipper gallery poses this question with “Ensemble,” an exhibition bringing together works by Brazilian artists Jac Leirner and Rafa Silvares. Despite a generational difference, the fact that both artists trained at the same institute in São Paulo forms the foundation for a rich artistic dialogue built around their habits of collecting and sketching everyday objects.
Hip Hop’s Optics and a Salute to Mondrian
One of the exhibition’s key pieces is a new version of Leirner’s groundbreaking work Hip Hop, first created in 1998 and part of the Guggenheim collection. This horizontal line, composed of hundreds of adhesive tapes in varying widths, colors, and thicknesses, takes its name from the rebellious rhythm of Hip Hop music that leaped from the Bronx in New York to the world. With this installation, Leirner pays homage to Piet Mondrian’s geometric painting (Broadway Boogie Woogie) while simultaneously transforming the phonetics of “hip hop” into space and color conflict.
Surrounding this work are six new paintings by Silvares. Silvares’s canvases depict abstract landscapes made of slowly unfolding, viscous piles. Yet this landscape is constantly interrupted by the sharp contours of metal objects. Metal carries symbolic power in Silvares’s works; its shiny, reflective surface evokes modernism’s promise of scientific cleanliness.
Sound, Ritual, and the Power of Material
Silvares’s paintings draw inspiration from Leirner’s Hip Hop. The artist’s work 808 (2025) depicts shiny aluminum-gray buttons surrounded by intense red, yellow, and blue tones that reference Mondrian. The title also alludes to the iconic drum machine Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, which formed the basis of early Hip Hop samples.
With Hyperlink (2025), Silvares pays tribute to Leirner’s signature gesture of creating large installations using hardware store objects like adhesive hooks. In the exhibition, Leirner and Silvares stage an ensemble of rhythmic interventions by translating sound into color; here, the essence of color, rhythm, and frequency emerges.
Artists: Jac Leirner and Rafa Silvares
Exhibition Title: Ensemble
Venue: Esther Schipper, Potsdamer Strasse 81E, Berlin
Dates: Continues until 18 December 2025
