Gilson Do Rosário Silva is a Cabo Verdean photographer and multidisciplinary artist based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Born and raised in Cabo Verde, he has build a living in the Netherlands, his home for almost two decades.

His creative practice developed across photography, drawing, painting, graphic design and music, informed by an earlier professional background in radio journalism and sound. He worked as a radio journalist and later as a radio news editor in Cabo Verde, and from his late teens into his mid-twenties hosted a Hip-Hop show on FM radio.

He began photographing in 2015 and developed his photographic practice through years of self-directed and community-based work, documenting cultural events, concerts, festivals and everyday life. His practice gradually developed toward documentary, portraiture, street photography and fine-art work, with particular attention to people, cultural identity, memory and place.

Since presenting his first major public exhibition, “I FLYSOLO: But Never Walk Alone”, at Luxor Theater in Rotterdam in 2025, Gilson’s practice has expanded through exhibitions, workshops, institutional collaborations, community projects and photographic installations in The Netherlands and Cabo Verde.

His work frequently connects these two countries (Cabo Verde and the Netherlands) and explores photography as a means of creating relationships, preserving memory and opening conversations around culture and identity. His current work develops these interests through longer-term photographic projects, including the expo “Cabo Verde: The Future” (part of Luxor Theater’s Art Wall) in which he introduces the “Photography Museum Initiative - Cabo Verde”, his vision for the creation of the first museum dedicated to photography in Cabo Verde.