GILLES CLEMENT GALLERY

VICKI DASILVA

 

Vicki DaSilva is a light graffiti and light painting photography pioneer. She has been making single frame time exposure photographs at night since 1980. She is credited with the term ‘light graffiti’ and was the first artist to create a series of text light graffiti photographs as well as to use four and eight-foot fluorescent lamps as light painting tools. 

DaSilva moved to NYC in 1983 after receiving her BFA from Kutztown University of PA. While at KU she met Keith Haring, a Kutztown, PA native. She was heavily influenced by the convergence of street and graffiti art during the birth of hip-hop that created a lasting graffiti love affair with light replacing spray paint. 

 

DaSilva did an internship and worked as an assistant for several years with internationally acclaimed video and performance artist Joan Jonas. Through Jonas she was introduced to many historically significant artists including Richard Serra, for whom she worked as a personal assistant throughout the 80’s.  

Her exploration of light graffiti and light painting as a multi-disciplinary, time-based art form anchored in the photographic process continues to push boundaries of intervention and activism art.  

DaSilva’s work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions at Interference International Light Art Project Tunis, Art New York, SCOPE Miami Beach, Cheryl Hazan Gallery, Dorsky Curatorial Projects, Lesley Heller Workspace, Woodward Gallery, Snap! Orlando Photo Festival, NADA Art Fair, Context Art Miami, Fountain Art Fair, Center for Photography at Woodstock, Silver Eye Center for Photography, among many others. Her work was included in the catalog Light Art from Artificial Light, ZKM Museum for Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe, Germany. In 2012 DaSilva was the solo winner of the international competition Art Takes Times Square that resulted in her work being featured on the cover of the New York Times Arts section as well as on the 13 major digital billboards of the Times Square Midnight Moment art program. In March 2015 during UNESCO’s International Year of Light, Vicki partnered with the umanitarian organization Oxfam International in London’s Trafalgar Square to create and donate her signature work to raise awareness and shine a light on the 4th anniversary of the tragic Syrian conflict.