Bio

Johannah Silva is a Chicago-based artist who makes abstract paintings.   Born in the Philippines and grew up in San Francisco, she has lived in Chicago for the past 10 years.  She received her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1999 and currently teaches full-time at Wright College.  

Artist Statement

Johannah Silva’s recent body of abstract paintings utilize color and ground to create spatial relationships and tensions that evoke multi-layered worlds.  Utilizing a pouring technique with acrylic paints and deliberately employing a fluid medium, she works intuitively in dialog with her canvas and painting materials.  Care in mark-making, spontaneity, close observation, accidental interactions, and consideration of figure and ground play a major part in her artistic process.  She hopes the viewer will engage with the paintings as intimately as she does when working with them and allow for an opening up or revelation for the viewer of their own associations, memories and experiences.