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Love Maps
February 2 @ 5:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Artist Talk: FRIDAY FEBRUARY 2 @ 5pm
Exhibition: February 2 & March 1, First Fridays 5-10pm
Local Language: 477 25th Street, Oakland CA 94612
View: @locallanguageart
“Love is the bridge between you and everything.” – Rumi
Love Maps delves into the theory that childhood experiences cast a map within the mind to finding love. As we come of age and discover our sense of belonging and purpose, we navigate our adult lives led by those signposts. Although traditionally this theory focused on romantic love, Silva Gomes explores an expansive concept of love that includes close friendships, communal belonging, objects and ambiances that bring intrinsic joy, as well as the roles, vocations and rituals that give deep personal fulfillment. Our markers of love, woven in an ecstatic quilt, offer a reflection of who we are.
Drawing upon the nostalgic and incorporating techniques honed during her residency at Local Language, Love Maps utilizes dimension and texture to a surreal effect. Artworks include dream-like visions printed both on and beneath the surface of acrylic, treated as oracle cards offering mysterious guidance, a large chessboard symbolizing the negotiations made within relationships, and several surreal sculptural pieces. Love Maps inspires an intentional and playful envisioning of love; an introspective check-in that unlocks childhood memories; an invitation to love that whispers, “What you seek is seeking you.”
An artist and author based in Oakland, Silva Gomes honors dreaming as the language of intuition through fiber art, painting, writing and visualization. As a self taught artist with a background in sociology, she considers visual archetypes in our culture to be a compelling study of the collective consciousness and societal messaging.
