Boston-based artist Silvia López Chavez will be in residence this Spring creating a massive new mural for the Northeastern campus, commissioned by the Northeastern Public Art Initiative.
With roots in the Dominican Republic, Silvia’s work is informed by her own personal narratives and responds to her identities as an immigrant, educator, artist and designer. She is motivated by the power of the creative process as an agent for positive change. Silvia holds a BFA in Illustration from the Massachusetts College of Art & Design and has exhibited her work in solo and group shows including the Fitchburg Art Museum, Boston Children’s Museum and the New Hampshire Institute of Art. Chavez is currently an artist in residence at Boston Children’s Hospital and continues her studio art practice at the Boston Center for the Arts.
In 2017, she completed the first mural on the Charles River Esplanade commissioned by Now + There, and in 2016 she received a ‘Creative City’ grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) for Lemonade Stand an interactive art installation she created with artist Elisa Hamilton, throughout the city of Boston. In 2015 through a Boston Foundation grant, Chavez was commissioned by the Design Studio for Social Intervention (DS4Si) to create a temporary public art installation called Color Up! in Dorchester, MA. The project invited the community to help design and apply temporary spray-painted patterns to surrounding areas of the Upham’s Corner train station as part of the Lighting The Line Project. In 2013, Silvia received a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant for her ‘Fresh Air: Portraits’ of Chelsea project; which explored the environmental and political aspects within air quality issues in Chelsea, MA and was also a finalist for the Brother Thomas Fellowship Award. For two years, Chavez served as a Steering Committee member for the City of Boston Mayor’s Office to help shape the Boston Creates cultural plan for the city.
In addition to her fine art practice, she is an award-winning design professional, working for over 13 years with high-profile companies and institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the World Health Organization, the World Bank and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Image courtesy of Now + There