‘Salt of the Earth’ exhibition honors service workers and immigrants in the U.S.

“I wanted to draw what brings me back,” Latino contemporary artist Simón Silva said about his latest art exhibition, “Salt of the Earth.” 

The exhibition at Eastern Projects Gallery in L.A.’s Chinatown sheds light on the diverse stories of working-class people and the vital role of immigrants in sustaining the United States communities, the economy and everyday lives.

Through his art and latest painting, Silva, 63, was able to reflect and travel back to a time when he was an undocumented farmworker who, as a kid, worked in Holtville, the agricultural town in California's Imperial Valley. 

Simón Silva was born in 1961 in Mexicali, Mexico, just miles away from the Mexico-U.S. border. When he was only one year old, his family, like many other families across the world, immigrated to the U.S., where he and his siblings spent much of their young lives as migrant farm workers.

As he was attending elementary school, he was also picking fruit and vegetables in his free time, a time of his life that, according to him, built the person he is today.

Silva, who was quiet and reserved as a child, soon found that art was a means of expressing himself. 

He helped his parents in agricultural fields until he was 23; that also allowed him to earn money to pay for his college tuition. He would later begin his educational journey at Imperial Valley College, where he received his associate arts degree. In 1986, he received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts in illustration from Art Center of College of Design in Pasadena, California. 

Today, Silva is widely recognized for his portrayal of immigrant communities and the work of farm workers.  

“Salt of the Earth,” is composed of 40 paintings and features farm workers, maids, house cleaners, gardeners and other service workers.

Silva told CALÒ News he was very happy his paintings will be displayed  at the Eastern Projects Gallery from February to late March, especially at a time when ICE raids and immigration enforcement operations have started to sweep through major U.S. cities, like L.A. when in the last few weeks people have reported seeing ICE and border patrol vehicles. 

“It’s disgusting,” Silva said when talking about the recent ICE raids. Despite this, he also thinks that what most inspires him is the solidarity and the pro-immigration stance he has seen in places like L.A., where more than 3.6 million immigrants reside there today.  “[I’ve seen] this beautiful coming together of our communities and we need that desperately,” he said. 

Silva’s favorite paintings, which part of his exhibition, are three 12’x 18’ oil on canvas paintings titled “Maids.” 

The paintings feature three women wearing traditional maid uniform  standing in what appears to be a Virgen de Guadalupe-like stance and imagery. Silva said service workers like maids, who are often the caretakers of U.S.-born children, are often at the center of many of his paintings because, even though they are frequently viewed as "invisible workers," he has a great deal of respect and admiration for them. 

He said he has instilled in his kids respect for any type of worker and insists on treating them with the same kindness. “People come across moms, sisters, tías and nobody talks to them because they are the maids,” he said. “We see them in the hallways, and we say, ‘¿Hey, señora, como estas?’ and their faces light up and it's such a beautiful thing to see.” 

With tears in his eyes, he told CALÒ News of the values his father and mother also instilled in him and his six siblings. “We used to live very close to the border,” Silva said. “Throughout the years, my father would often bring home people who were crossing the border, immigrants like us. He would offer them a place to rest, allow them to shower and my mom would cook and send them off with meals. That’s what it's all about, treating [immigrants] with respect.” 

Silva said he continues to use art as a way to educate, communicate and make a stance on whatever is important to us.

“I told people 33 years ago that the arts were going to save the world; people laughed. I'm talking about [art through an] education sake and transformation,” he said. “If we would not have had the art like we did during COVID-19, I guarantee a lot of people would have checked out. The arts are going to save the world because they're going to protect our free will to be able to give us a responsibility that we all have to be able to find what the truth is about ourselves and about others.”

In 1992, Silva's work was chosen to represent the U.S. in the Latino/Hispanic Heritage Month art exhibit at the Los Angeles City Hall. His work has been featured at UCLA and in Time Magazine and he has also done work for the Bilingual Foundation for the Arts, the Association of Mexican American Educators, the Migrant Student Worker Program and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Through this exhibit, Silva seeks to challenge conventional societal perceptions and acknowledge the immigrant working-class community. 

“Salt of the Earth” will be on view at the Eastern Projects Gallery through March 22, 2025. 

For additional information, visit: https://www.easternprojectsgallery.com/simon-silva-salt-of-the-earth.