The Warriors II

In "The Warriors II," da Silva layers time and displacement, juxtaposing Alameda California’s deep history with its modern transformation. Before the early 1900s, the island was not truly an island - it was a tidal landmass, shifting with the rhythms of the water. For thousands of years, the Ohlone people navigated these changing tides, their presence marked by over a hundred shell mounds and burial sites. When the first European settlers arrived, much of this history was slowly erased.

During World War II, Alameda became a key supply hub for the Pacific front, and the land took on a new, militarized identity. Today, remnants of that era remain in street names and fading structures, but the memory of the Ohlone has been largely reduced to a handful of plaques. In this painting, da Silva collapses past and present, placing indigenous figures in the foreground, paddling through a landscape overrun with later histories. The Naval Air Station looms in the background - an emblem of a different kind of occupation, one that drowned out the voices of those who came before.

Through his layered imagery, da Silva compels us to consider what is remembered, what is forgotten, and how land itself holds the weight of its past.