About

Rafael Guimarães grew up running around his grandfather's studio.

His grandfather, Nathaniel Marques Guimarães, was a Brazilian watercolorist and a member of Porto Alegre's Atelier 66, alongside artists including Paulo Amaral, Péricles Gomide, Graça Cerutti and Ivan Pinheiro Machado.

Art remained part of Rafael's everyday life. He later helped his mother at Pele d'Alma, an art-focused store built around compositions, selected works and direct contact with artists such as Arminda Lopes, Vasco Prado, Nathaniel Marques Guimarães and Eduardo Guimarães, his uncle, among many others.

Among Nathaniel's archives, a student folder preserves records of Rafael's first art lessons in 1998, when he was eight years old.

Creative, stubborn, warm and persistent, Rafael followed a path that never stayed inside one discipline.

He entered the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) at 16, studied Business Administration, represented the university internationally, and later built a career as an entrepreneur and commercial consultant, founding his first business at 19.

He is also an English teacher and supports Projeto Surfar, a community initiative serving children and teenagers in Morro da Tuca, a favela in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Today, his work brings those worlds together: art, language, entrepreneurship and community.

The idea is simple: teaching English should go far beyond translating words. It can also help translate feelings, experiences and possibilities — through language, art and a shared meal bringing everyone together. Believe in coexistence.