Dana Salvo

Dana Salvo, United States (lives and works in Boston, MA).

Recipient of John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 1997 and a subsequent Subvention in 1998, Dana has also twice received the Fulbright Scholar Award, as well as the Lila Wallace Fund; the Asian Cultural Council; the Massachusetts Cultural Council; the Berkshire Taconic Foundation's Artist Resource Trust; the LEF Foundation; amongst many other awards.

With numerous solo shows in precincts including the Harvard University David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Addison Gallery of American Art and Peabody Essex Museum, Dana’s work is represented in numerous collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MOMA, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Fogg Art Museum, San Francisco MOMA, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Addison Gallery of American Art.

Salvo is the author of the photo book Home Altars of Mexico, published by the University of New Mexico Press and Thames and Hudson UK.- From 1990 to 2019, Salvo traveled throughout the central highlands and southern states of Mexico to visit the Purépehcas of Michoacán, Chamulas and Zinacantán from Chiapas, Mayas of Yucatan and several communities from those more than 60 living indigenous peoples in Mexican territory.

At the heart of many homes in Mexico is the altarcito (home altar), which creates a focus of intricate and sincere spirituality with profound personal and familial meaning reflecting the vitality of Mexico's spiritual practices.

The photographs gaze behind public displays of faith and tradition and into the private realm of personal reverence represented within families’ homes. The images depict the vernacular iconography of the home inhabited by diverse ethnic and cultural populations where a profound spiritual character and strong family histories are in evidence.

Salvo is the founder of Clark Gallery exhibiting contemporary art in all media by emerging, mid-career, and established artists from the Northeast and nationally.

ALMANAQUE fotográfica is honored to present a selection of Dana’s works at its booth in Photo Fairs New York, followed by his solo show: “Altares” curated by Almanaque’s founder Arturo Delgado, simultaneously with Manuel Álvarez Bravo’s the Mexican preeminent photographer, unreleased color plates in November of 2024.