Sylvia Savala (2018)

Cakes and Daggers: Heartache and Emancipation

October 23 - November 15, 2018

Opening Reception: Friday, October 26, 5:00-8:00 pm

Sylvia Savala (b. 1947, Clovis, CA, lives and works in Fresno) is a painter, essayist, and poet. Savala is largely self educated as an artist; she was inspired by the example of Frida Kahlo to draw from her personal life and struggles as source for her work, and later studied with Wayne Thiebaud and Alexander Nepote.

Savala’s paintings are fluid and gestural with a strong, Chicanx feminist perspective. Figures and objects sit in swirling, abstract fields of vibrant color, symbols, and form. Her works often chronicle dreams, personal narratives, and the ebb and flow of relationships. They express the power of female desire and sensuality, often placing her body, and by extension, her identity as a Mexican-American woman, unapologetically front and center.

Savala’s work has been included in exhibitions both nationally and internationally, and her essay, “How I became a Chicana Feminist Artist”, about her creative and personal journey, was included in “Entering the Picture: Judy Chicago, the Fresno Feminist Art Program, and the Collective Visions of Women Artists” (Routledge, 2011). Savala holds an MFA from Fresno State University’s Creative Nonfiction program. Currently, she teaches English at Fresno City College and devotes her life to family, painting, writing, and gardening. This exhibition surveys Savala’s paintings, drawings, and etchings, over a 25 year period, dating from the early 1990s.