Artist Statement
Since 1980 I have passionately and methodically pursued light graffiti and light painting photography as a means of creating images that are multidisciplinary in the art making process. Painting, sculpture, performance, installation, intervention, drawing, text, color and site-specificity all play an important, individual and collective role in my photographs. I use light graffiti text photography as a global awareness campaign to further our social, political and environmental consciousness. Process Statement
Through processes of recording that are unique to photography, I create time exposure light painting photographs at night, live, on location by drawing manually with lamps. The execution time varies in duration from minutes to hours per photograph.

 

 

Vicki DaSilva is a light graffiti and light painting photography pioneer. She creates single frame time exposure photographs at night that document her drawing with lamps live, on location. She is credited with the term ‘light graffiti’ as well as being the first artist to make light graffiti text photographs beginning in 1980.

DaSilva studied photography and earned a BFA from Kutztown University of PA in 1983. 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. The Haring/Basquiat years and famous Haring exhibition opening parties at Tony Shafrazi Gallery in SoHo created a lasting graffiti love affair with light replacing spray paint.

DaSilva did an internship and worked as an assistant for internationally acclaimed video and performance artist Joan Jonas. Through Jonas she was introduced to many 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 the boundaries of the genre into territories of performance and public intervention art that comments on contemporary social and political issues.

Vicki DaSilva’s work has been featured in both solo and group exhibitions in NYC and internationally. In 2012 her work was chosen as the solo grand prizewinner from over 35,000 entries of the Artists Wanted competition Art Takes Times Square. Subsequently her work was featured nightly for the month of July in Times Square Moment: A Digital Gallery on 13 of the major electronic billboards.

Her work appeared June 18, 2012 as a half page cover photo of the New York Times Arts section as well as in the catalog Light Art from Artificial Light, ZKM Museum for Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe, Germany in 2006. In 2011 Reebok commissioned her for their Miami Classic Lite project. Vicki DaSilva is a two time PA Council on the Arts Fellowship recipient for photography. Her work is in numerous private and public collections and can be seen at vickidasilva.com.