Hector Silva - prints and biography

Biography

Hector Silva is a self-taught Mexican-American artist based in Los Angeles whose drawings and prints explore identity, faith, sexuality, and social struggle with striking visual and emotional intensity. Born in Ocotlán, Jalisco, Mexico, he moved to the United States as a teenager and began drawing in his mid-twenties, discovering a natural gift for rendering the human figure with precision and sensitivity. Early recognition came when a portrait he created of Lucille Ball was acquired by the actress herself, encouraging him to pursue a career in art.

Working primarily in pencil and colored pencil on board, Silva achieves a refined, almost photographic realism, yet his imagery is layered with symbolism drawn from both Catholic iconography and contemporary urban life. His figures—often haloed, pierced, or entwined with roses and barbed wire—reflect the tension between the sacred and the profane, between devotion and desire. A hallmark of his work is Saint Drastiko (2007), a silkscreen print that reimagines the martyr as a young man from the streets, his holiness marked not by purity but by resilience and survival.

Silva’s art engages deeply with questions of cultural identity, masculinity, and queer experience, portraying the body as a site of both vulnerability and empowerment. His images confront issues of faith, politics, and marginalization while celebrating the strength and sensuality of the individual spirit.

Over the past three decades, Silva has exhibited widely across the United States, including shows at the Museum of Latin American Art, the Autry Museum, the One Institute/USC, and numerous university and community galleries. His work is represented in both private and institutional collections and continues to resonate for its combination of technical mastery, spiritual reflection, and fearless social commentary.