The Artist

Reva Diana is a Filipina visual artist based in Calgary, Alberta, on the ancestral and traditional territories of the peoples of Treaty 7, which include the Blackfoot Confederacy (comprised of the Siksika, the Piikani, and the Kainai First Nations), the Tsuut'ina First Nation, and the Stoney Nakoda (including Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Goodstoney First Nations). The city of Calgary is also home to the Métis Nation within Alberta (including Nose Hill Métis District 5 and Elbow Métis District 6).

Reva works across painting, printmaking, and mixed media. Her practice moves between the figure, objects, and environments to examine identity, memory, diaspora, and the ways personal and cultural histories shape our sense of self and belonging.

Her work is rooted in a layered process that combines oil, egg tempera, gold leaf, drawing, and printmaking. Moving between realism and abstraction, she uses figures, domestic spaces, symbolic objects, and colour to address personal experience, cultural identity, and the complicated relationships we have with home and belonging.

Influenced by Philippine folklore, Catholic devotional imagery, and her experience as a Filipina living in Canada, Reva is interested in what we inherit, what we preserve, and what we carry forward.

Her work has been exhibited in Alberta and British Columbia, and her portrait of Benson Flores, the first documented Filipino settler in Canada, is held in the permanent collection of the Museum of Vancouver.