Chromatic Portals invites visitors to move through an open landscape of color, texture, and light – Inspiring personal and collective wonder. Three large metal structures shimmer with soft fabric that flows overhead, creating colorful passages of blue, green, and violet hues. The sculptural forms take the shape of immersive doorways, or portals, each one a symbolic threshold into a different emotional and ecological realm: Land, Water, and Sky.
The patterns printed on the fabric echo forms found in nature and our own bodies — at every scale: in the branching of leaf veins, the spread of mycelium underground, the rippling of water, and the spirals of galaxies— They reveal mirrored systems that connect us. This continuity between the micro and the macro reflects a central idea: we are indivisible from nature—we are embedded within its systems, its cycles, its intelligence.
Through vibrant color and layered gradients, I’m interested in how color can carry feeling, memory, and story. The chromatic shifts and movement across each surface create a sense of wonder, reminding us that we are part of one interconnected flow. As an artist, I’m committed to creating experiences in shared spaces—work that is accessible, across generations and communities. I want people to feel welcome and bring their own stories into it. –Silvia López Chavez
This artwork is part of deCordova’s GROUNDED series, which supports new artist’s commissions inspired by the natural world and deCordova’s land and ecology.
About the Artist
Silvia López Chavez is a Boston-based artist who creates public and site-specific work that centers connection, community, and shared experience. Born in the Dominican Republic, López Chavez draws inspiration from her Afro-Caribbean heritage in her practice. She believes in the power of the creative process to support positive change. Her work encourages people to connect with one another, engage with their surroundings, and develop a sense of agency in the places where they live and gather.
López Chavez graduated from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Altos deChavon in the Dominican Republic. From 2021 to 2023, she was a recipient of a Salon Luminary at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Leadership in Public Art Award by the New England for the Arts, a Common Good Awards from MassArt, The Boston Foundation’s Brother Thomas Fellowship award, and the Amplify Latinx 100 award. She has created commissions for the U.S. Chinese Embassy in Beijing, Peabody Essex Museum, City of Boston, SeaWalls Boston, MIT, Barr Foundation, and Northeastern University.