Who Is Hamilton Aguiar?
Hamilton Aguiar was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, in 1965. Before he was a painter, he was immersed in mural work and interior design, a background that still shapes how he thinks about a canvas. Aguiar doesn't just paint an image; he designs a spatial experience, treating color, gradient, and reflection the way an interior designer treats light in a room.
He relocated to New York in 1987 and spent years refining technique across materials before entering the contemporary art scene in 2004 with a body of work built on what he calls a neo-figurative language: flat color fields pushed against sharp chromatic gradations. In 2013, Aguiar moved to Miami Beach, where southern Florida's light and coastline became a recurring subject in his Seascapes and Flowers series. He now works as both painter and sculptor, and his pieces sit in private and public collections internationally, including a permanent placement at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, California.
Aguiar's own studio and gallery, Silver Lining Fine Arts, has operated out of Miami since 2015. His work is also carried by a network of contemporary galleries across the U.S. and Latin America, Carousel Fine Art among them, with pieces on view across our Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, and New Buffalo locations.
Inside the Optical Series
The Optical series is where Aguiar's design instincts and painting technique meet most directly. Each piece uses meticulously layered, extremely thin lines of color, built up in gradients that shift from tone to tone across the canvas. The result reads less like a static image and more like a surface in motion. Viewers routinely describe the effect as rippling water or fabric catching a breeze, an illusion of three-dimensionality achieved entirely with paint on a flat plane.
Technique and Materials
Aguiar's process for the Optical series draws on color field painting's use of large, unbroken planes of hue, but he complicates that simplicity with careful gradation and micro-variation in his brushwork. Most Optical paintings are executed in oil on canvas, though Aguiar has also produced pieces in oil and resin over copper sheets mounted on wood panels, a combination that adds a metallic undertone beneath the paint layers. He's also known to bring in gilding, metallic leafing, and acid-based patina work, techniques more commonly associated with restoration and decorative arts than contemporary painting.
Scale and Presence
Optical works are built for presence. Many pieces run up to 72 x 72 inches square or extend to 48 x 84 inches horizontally, often with a two-inch panel depth that gives them real physical weight on a wall. At that scale, the illusion of movement isn't a subtle effect you notice up close; it changes as you walk past the piece, which is exactly the point. These are paintings designed to activate a room, not just occupy a corner of it.
The New Evolution: Oil Over Mirrored Plexiglass
Aguiar's most recent development within the Optical series replaces canvas with mirrored plexiglass as the painting surface, with oil applied directly over the reflective panel. A recent example currently available through Carousel Fine Art, titled "Optical," measures 38 x 79 x 2 inches, a large-format horizontal piece where the painted gradients sit on top of a literal mirror.
The effect changes the entire relationship between viewer and artwork. Where a canvas Optical painting creates an illusion of depth through paint alone, the mirrored plexiglass pieces fold the room itself into the composition. Light, color, and whoever is standing in front of the piece become part of what's reflected back through the painted layers. It's the same core interest (spatial perception, movement, the tension between flat surface and implied depth) pushed into genuinely dimensional territory. For collectors who already respond to the Optical series, the mirrored plexiglass works are the most technically ambitious expression of that idea to date.
Commissioning a Hamilton Aguiar Original
Aguiar accepts commissions across his active series, and the Optical series is no exception. Recent commissioned work includes large multi-panel formats: a 2026 diptych commission in oil on panel measuring 36 x 91 inches is a good example of the scale collectors are requesting for statement walls and formal interiors.
How the Commission Process Works
Commissioning starts with a conversation about scale, palette, and placement. Because Aguiar works across custom sizes and color variations within each series, a commission gives collectors and designers more control than selecting from available inventory — particularly useful when a piece needs to fit a specific wall, complement an existing palette, or anchor a multi-panel installation like a diptych or triptych.
Where to See and Collect Hamilton Aguiar's Work
Carousel Fine Art carries Hamilton Aguiar's work across our gallery locations, including current Optical series pieces at our Atlanta gallery in Buckhead Village. You can browse Hamilton Aguiar's available works directly, or explore our full roster of contemporary artists to see how his practice fits within the broader program. If you're planning a visit, see what's currently on view before you go.
FAQ
What is Hamilton Aguiar's Optical series? The Optical series is a body of paintings by Brazilian artist Hamilton Aguiar that uses tonal gradients and fine, layered linework to create the illusion of movement and three-dimensional depth on a flat surface.
What materials does Hamilton Aguiar use in the Optical series? Most Optical paintings are oil on canvas. Aguiar has also worked in oil and resin over copper sheets mounted on wood panels, and most recently, oil applied directly over mirrored plexiglass.
What is "oil over mirrored plexiglass"? It's Aguiar's newest technique within the Optical series, where paint is applied to a reflective plexiglass panel instead of canvas. The mirrored surface interacts with the room's light and the viewer's own reflection, adding a literal dimension of depth to the painted illusion.
Can I commission a Hamilton Aguiar piece? Yes. Aguiar accepts commissions across his active series, including custom sizes, color palettes, and multi-panel formats like diptychs. Reach out to Carousel Fine Art to start the conversation.
Where can I see or buy Hamilton Aguiar's work? Hamilton Aguiar is represented by Carousel Fine Art, with pieces on view at our Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, West Palm Beach locations, alongside a network of other contemporary galleries across the U.S. and Latin America.
Conclusion
Hamilton Aguiar's Optical series has always been about what happens when paint suggests movement it can't actually make. The mirrored plexiglass works take that idea a step further, letting the room itself complete the illusion. If a piece from this series is the right fit for your space, or you're considering a custom commission, start a commission conversation with our team at Carousel Fine Art.
