About Guided Tour: Portals with Silvia López Chavez
Join us for a guided tour celebrating the work of Boston-based artist Silvia López Chavez. This tour explores her vibrant new outdoor commission, Chromatic Portals, alongside her immersive indoor mural, Touching the Portal.
Chromatic Portals transforms the South Lawn into a luminous landscape of movement and light. Three immersive doorways (or portals) represent a symbolic threshold into Land, Water, and Sky. Printed patterns echo forms found in leaf veins, mycelium networks, rippling water, and spiraling galaxies.
Inside the museum, a large-scale mural continues this exploration of the natural world. Touching the Portal immerses the museum in color, pattern, and imagery from the natural world. Some imagery (such as the ginkgo leaf and the nautilus shell) interweave concepts about nature’s resilience and design.
This tour offers close-looking, conversation, and insight into the artist’s materials, influences, and vision.
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.
deCordova’s programs are designed to welcome a wide range of ages and abilities. Please contact mnelson@thetrustees.org to discuss adaptations to benefit anyone in your group.
Pre-ticketing is required in order to anticipate capacity. Your ticket includes admission to deCordova’s campus, so please feel free to explore the grounds before or after the program.
Cancellation Policy: In the event The Trustees cancels a program due to severe weather, low enrollment, or other circumstances, we will notify registrants by email and issue a full refund or transfer to another scheduled program within two weeks of the cancellation. To cancel a reservation, please reach out 7 days prior to the start of the program to receive a full refund. Refunds and transfers may not be granted for cancellations placed fewer than 7 days before the start of the program.
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