Fresno City College brings the art of local Latinx painter, essayist and poet Sylvia Savala to the Art Space Gallery for the second exhibit of the semester.

Bursting with color and expression, the FCC Art Space Gallery information page on FCC’s website describes Savala’s works as “fluid and gestural with a strong, Chicanx feminist perspective.”

Exhibit curator Elena Harvey reveals this exhibit is “the first in a long time, the first at this gallery, [and] the first at an institutional space.”

“She paints like she’s a storyteller. She paints things from her experience and she paints her personal autobiography,” Harvey continued, explaining that each painting tells a story from the artist’s life.

“Sometimes when you see them in sequence, you see these bigger narratives playing out.”

As a self-taught artist, Savala’s works of art are created locally, as displayed through the exhibit itself, which features a recreation of her at-home workspace as an artist.

Savala has faced many challenges as an artist ranging from raising a family, to the challenges of being a feminist artist during the male dominated Chicano art movement. However, her challenges influenced her artwork as displayed throughout the various emotions represented in her paintings.

Harvey explained that students enrolled in art classes have the opportunity to have their pieces put on display. “Last year we had over 100 submissions, and then obviously that gets juried and we curate the exhibition from that.”

Savala’s exhibit is the last of the solo artist exhibitions this semester. It will be followed by the student art sale on Dec. 3 and 4. It is for currently enrolled students to have an opportunity to sell their works of art in a public space.

Three more exhibitions will follow in the spring semester starting with “Brace Yourself,” a traveling exhibit opening Jan. 14 The gallery will also host a commissioned video piece that will be on display in March.

The third event in the spring will be the student art show, where FCC art students submit their own creations to be put on display.