July 2021 Featured Artist

---

 Argentinian American Artist Shares Her Artistic Journey
and Her Work with Local Communities
​
Sculptor & Interdisciplinary Artist
Silvina Mizrahi​

Silvina Posing with "The Prince and the Fairy II
Photo Credit: Raul Mostoslavsky

Argentinian American Silvina Mizrahi is an interdisciplinary artist and art educator based in Boston. Her works are fueled by her beliefs in art as a tool that helps us to connect, to heal and to embrace our differences.

Silvina likes to work with different mediums and techniques. Her works encompass figurative bronze sculptures, abstract expressionist mixed media paintings, recycled material sculptures (created with diverse communities) and public art. Her art is a mirror of her experiences as an immigrant, memories from her childhood, Jewish traditions, and her commitment to environmental causes.

​Silvina was born and raised in the small town of Tucuman, Argentina. As a child, she loved making sculptures out of materials she found around the house. She received her degree in fine arts at the University of Tucuman. After moving to Buenos Aires, she trained in sculpture under the supervision of Antonio D’aniello and Antonio Pujia. While in Buenos Aires, she also studied dance and theater, a training that is reflected in her dynamic sculptures.

She has exhibited her work in numerous galleries and museums in the U.S. and internationally, including Jerusalem Center for Performing Arts; Museo Timoteo Navarro, Argentina; Arco Baleno, Uruguay; MFA Boston, and Maison de L’Argentine du Paris, France. She is currently a Selected Artist at the Cove Gallery in Wellfleet, MA.

Silvina has been the recipient of several awards, including the Nathaniel Bushward Award from the Copley Society, the Juror Choice from the Thomas Menino Art Center in Boston, and in 2017, she was selected “One of the 100 Most Influential People for the Latino Community in Boston” by el Planeta, Boston.

---

Myrna Beth Haskell, executive editor, had a long chat with Silvina regarding her sculpture technique, the inspiration behind her work, and her dedication to community projects that promote creativity and celebrate diversity.

You’ve studied several styles of dance. Has this always been an inspiration for your work?

My mom encouraged me to try different things, but she didn’t push if it didn't work out. I’ve always loved to dance. When I was seven years old, I tried a ballet class, but the teacher was [very negative], so I didn't want to do it anymore. I wound up studying art. However, in Argentina, there are no majors and minors as there are here in the U.S. It was less flexible, so I had to decide on a specific area, such as painting or sculpture. 

Silvina never lost her passion for dance, even though she enjoyed her studies in fine art.

It wasn’t until I was in my 20s that I decided I wanted to be a ballerina. I finished my art degree in five years. Then, I moved to Buenos Aires to pursue dance, and I became an art teacher to pay for the dance classes. I took ballet, jazz, modern dance, and belly dancing. The dancers I was studying with were applying for auditions. It meant a lot of standing in line and competing with girls that had been studying ballet since they were three years old.

After realizing a career as a ballerina was not in her future, Silvina immersed herself in the fine arts world once again.

I started to study sculpture with an art teacher there [in Buenos Aires]. The feelings I experienced, such as how the muscles move while you dance, came into my work at this time.
​
I truly admire and was influenced by Albert Giacometti’s ​sculpture work. My series ‘Giacometti, Shall We Dance?’ is representative of this. His work was very ethereal, but I knew I wanted my pieces to move. 

Happiness
Sculpture: 32 X 12 X 9​ inches
© Silvina Mizrahi

Do you sketch dancers in motion before working on a sculpture?

Sometimes I sketch ballerinas, but I don’t look at sketches while I’m working. I don’t want my pieces to be about imitation. I can’t work with models because I freeze, and I start to analyze too much and get frustrated. Instead, the process is in my head and in my heart.

Do you listen to music while working?
​
Music is definitely a part of my creative process. I listen to music all the time while I’m working – classical and other styles. Ha! Sometimes I’m even dancing while working. Although sometimes I work in silence, too.

Your dance sculptures have so much movement. How do you accomplish this?

Some pieces are from ideas and others I just let go. I start with copper wire and bend it. After the wire is manipulated, the wax is added. You might think of the wire as the bones or skeleton for the piece and the wax as the muscle. I continue to manipulate the pieces until I’m happy with the pose.

The piece is then cast in bronze. I take it to a foundry for completion. The technique is called the ‘lost-wax technique,’ [a.k.a. cire-perdue] which is an ancient technique that has been used for more than 6,000 years. A mold is first made in plaster to cover the wax. When the hot, liquid bronze is poured in from the top, the wax melts and the bronze fills the negative spaces left inside the plaster. Then, the plaster is chiseled from around the bronze. This process is expensive because it’s a lot of work.
​
Each piece of wax is unique. The pieces are one-of-a-kind and cannot by reproduced.

​How difficult is it to balance these sculptures? The limbs are very delicate.
​
It’s not a big problem because the sculptures do not have a lot of weight at the top. Sometimes a piece needs to be tilted a bit or the base needs to be extended to make it work. In pieces where I used a wheel, you have to be more careful. Any problems that arise with balance or stability are solved at the foundry. Once they’re completed, the pieces are strong and can be shipped or cleaned.

​You’ve used some unusual organic material, such as orange peels. Can you describe some of the recycled materials you’ve used in your work?

Everything that is organic can be cast in bronze. I always use recycled materials.

​I’ve used doilies for tutus on the ballerina sculptures. The doilies are dumped in wax and then shaped. I have also used orange peels and twigs. I love the beauty and texture of the surfaces. For sculptures that have a dress, I use the cotton cloths that we used to clean with in Argentina. The weave is very loose. When these pieces are chiseled after the bronze is poured, it’s a [painstaking] process because the spaces in the cloth must be cleaned out. One worker told me it took eight hours to clean out a dress.

Jolene and the Muse
Sculpture: 25 X 5 X 5​ inches
© Silvina Mizrahi

‘Hope’ includes a sunflower. It’s magical to transform a sunflower into bronze! For ‘Revelations,’ I used a cocktail umbrella because it’s made of natural materials – wood and paper.

I usually don’t add materials after the piece is cast in bronze. An exception is ‘Here Comes the Sun’ from my Giacometti, Shall We Dance? series – copper wire was added after casting.

Hope
Sculpture: 30 X 5 X 5​ inches
© Silvina Mizrahi

Here Comes the Sun
Sculpture: 29 X 5 X 5​ inches
© Silvina Mizrahi

Revelations
Sculpture: 23 X 10 X 6​ inches
© Silvina Mizrahi

Will you share more about the piece “Revelations?” This is my favorite.

This piece was inspired from choreography by Alvin Ailey, and it was very special to me.
​
With this piece, I was almost ready to give up. Initially, it did not cast well. The head wasn’t there, but I just loved how the dress came out. So, we had to find a way to solve some issues, but sometimes these mistakes make the piece come out even better. This piece sold immediately – as soon as I brought it home from the foundry.

I see you’ve worked on community art projects, such as “To Life!” Anything you’d like to share?

At first, I volunteered and was later hired as an educator for the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Throughout this time, I met people from different communities and worked with a wide range of age groups. As a Latina, I was able to speak Spanish with those who [spoke English as a second language].

When the pandemic hit, the museum closed, and we were laid off. I realized that being by myself in my studio was not enough. I needed to connect with others, so I looked for opportunities online. I connected with the Jewish Arts Collaborative (JArts) which was sponsoring a community project to celebrate Hanukkah with the theme “light and hope.” Eight artists were chosen to work with diverse communities.

The focus was to bring art to different neighborhoods – art that speaks to a community and gives individuals the opportunity to express themselves. It was an online opportunity to get more people connected due to COVID.
​
The most amazing part was the journey. I wanted to do something with joy and dance. I worked with senior residents of a Hebrew senior living community. These residents had mental challenges, and Zoom was not a possibility for them. So, I trained instructors who worked with these seniors directly. They created sculptures with beautiful [antique] jewelry. I also worked with Divas Mentoring Divas. This group empowers others through dance performance. They taught me so much about African fabrics. I learned so much from both groups, and each piece was beautiful and unique.

​This is something I’d like to keep going. It’s inspiring to see people from different communities connecting and creating something together from their own experiences. I have plans for an in-person project in late June.

Some people don’t have the opportunity to go to museums, so it’s so important for them to have art right in their own neighborhoods. 

Work by Community Members for To Life! Project
Photo Courtesy: silvinamizrahi.com

To Life!
Sculpture Community Project: 28 X 28 X 28​ inches
© Silvina Mizrahi

​You’re also a painter. What was the inspiration behind your Home & Exile series?

Like my sculptures, these paintings came to me in a very unconscious way. There had been a lot of news about immigration, and I was also thinking about traveling back home. So, I was painting these processions - people moving from one place to another. They’re about what it feels like to be in transition and what it feels like to be an immigrant. Where do you feel at home - in your [native] home or your current home?
​
A person who bought one of my paintings told me it resembled a photo in The New York Times [see "Exile II in slideshow] and wondered if I had used the article and image as inspiration. A group of people were shown moving in a similar way to those in my painting. But I had never seen this. I think I could ‘feel’ it in my body - all that was going on around me and all that I was feeling.

Where do you find sanctuary?
​
As I walk into my childhood, my mind takes me to those spaces and places where I feel comfortable. I also experience sanctuary through dance and music. All of these things help me move to a different level of consciousness, to another dimension. 

---

“Mizrahi takes us on a journey into her world. Hers is a figurative work of delicate sculpture - people flung about in a frenzy of dance, figures frozen in a static embrace, images of love and emergence. This work is at once mystifying and grounded in human experience.”
 ~ Daniel Lahoda,
Curator, The Equator Gallery, Boston

Silvina's Website

Follow Silvina on:

FACEBOOK​
INSTAGRAM
​LINKEDIN

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS:

"Summer Months Exhibition"
Cove Gallery
Wellfleet, MA

Invited Artist
Latin Quarter Celebration
Boston, MA​