Silvie Mahdal is a self-taught artist whose hyperrealistic charcoal drawings have quietly found resonance across the world. Her work is neither decorative nor provocative – it is a quiet act of presence.
Often large in scale and intimate in subject, her drawings are not created to impress, but to gently invite. Each piece may take over 100 hours to complete, yet what lingers is not the effort – it is the emotional stillness they carry. These are not drawings that speak loudly – they breathe.
Working solely with charcoal and charcoal pastel, she captures fragments of the female form with both precision and softness – a nape, a lock of hair, the curve of a shoulder. These everyday details, often overlooked, become vast inner landscapes through scale and silence.
Silvie renders fragmented figures with meticulous softness. The contours are precise; the textures, lifelike. And yet – not everything is finished. There is no background. The subject exists in void – not to disappear, but to become more universal. The negative space around is the essence of the drawing. To breathe. Just to be for a while.
Her anonymity is not a loss – it is an invitation. By removing context, name, and setting, the figure sheds personal identity and becomes a quiet space for the subject herself and also the viewer’s own perception.
Having exhibited at the Venice Biennale (Personal Structures, 2024), she continues to define a space between realism and transcendence – a direction she calls “ethereal realism”. Her figures, faceless or turned away, create room for the viewer’s own reflection. They are neither symbols nor portraits – they are mirrors of innermost essence.
Collectors are drawn to her works not only because of their technique, but because they offer an experience. Her pieces live beyond the frame – they hold space. In interiors, they are not decoration – they are quiet companions.