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Untitled #2

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Silvia Poloto
Printmaking
2012

Cardinal Hall, Fourth Floor

Silvia Poloto, born in Brazil and based in San Francisco, is a contemporary, abstract artist. She works with a variety of mediums -- photography, sculpture, video, and paint -- and strives to incorporate elements of each practice into her primary medium of painting. Her abstract compositions are layered with geometric shapes, lines, and text, and her large, sweeping brush strokes in vibrant colors add dynamism and depth. She keeps the viewer engaged in the process through the many layers and unexpected and non-linear design. 
 
The visceral forms in this work originated from an Artist in Residence Program in Abu Dhabi that she participated in.
 
Silvia Poloto immigrated to San Francisco, California, in 1992. She was educated at the University of São Paulo where she earned a B.S. in electrical engineering. She earned her M.B.A. at the Fundação Getúlio Vargas in São Paulo. From 1996 to 1999, she worked as an instructor's assistant in the Sculpture Department, at City College of San Francisco. During that period, she also worked as a welder at 3D Studios in Oakland, CA and as an art instructor in mixed media at Associated Students of the University of California Art Studio at the University of California, Berkeley. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and abroad, including the United Arab Emirates, France, Spain, Italy, Singapore, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, and China. In the San Francisco Bay Area, her work has been featured in exhibitions at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the SFMOMA Artist's Gallery, the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, the Italian American Museum San Francisco and the M.H. De Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco where she was an artist-in-residence in 2001. Poloto's work has been acquired by institutional and corporate collections throughout the United States.

You can watch a conversation discussing her artwork and inspirations with art advisor Danielle Wohl in the Talks with the Artists interview series below.