About the Artist, Eliseo Silva

Eliseo Art Silva is a Philippine-born artist dedicated to creating public art on the West and East coasts. Most recognized for the Historic Filipinotown mural, Silva is also widely acknowledged for his other contributions, seen at his website: eliseoartsilva.com. Included on his personal wesite, Silva shares his artist statement: "I also believe in the positive impact of large scale wall art because I am witness to the transformation of people involved in the creative process. Through my public art installations I want to experience new ways of expression, while incorporating new materials and techniques. I intend to foster my artistic vision while deepening my connection with the community." 

In an interview from 2016, the mural’s artist, Eliseo Art Silva, expands upon his intentions for the mural. He describes that many of the “manongs”—the generation of immigrants in the 1920s and 30s—“felt dehumanized. They were not seen as their particular culture. They were seen either just as Chinese or Mexican. They called [their neighborhood] its ‘Chinatown.’…Even today, they don’t imagine a particular image—no particular painting, work of art—when they see Filipinos in the American landscape.” Silva’s words speak to the visual politics of race—a concept that continues to influence social, political, and economic realities. Filipinos have a history of being caught in between cultural categories, often mislabeled without proliferated, recognizable standards in Western, aesthetic history. The desire for representation finds art as an initial means of remedy. Silva seeks to combat the sudden vanishing of the image of suffering—where communication of traumas stemming from immigration and assimilation become normative to the point of invisbility. Silva’s mural is a form of witnessing; in creating images celebratory of FilAm heritage, he builds opportunities for imprinting upon viewers’ imaginations. Furthermore, in providing initial representations of FilAm history, Silva encourages the reimagining of Filipino America—a site continually reformed with the revisiting of history and reinterpretations of its presence, carried in its people today.

About the Artist, Eliseo Silva