Shelly Silver

Shelly Silver (born 1957) is a New York based artist utilizing video, film and photography.

Life
Silver attended Cornell University, graduating in 1980 with a B.A. in Intellectual History, and a B.F.A. in Mixed Media and subsequently attended the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Studio Program.

Silver is on the faculty of Columbia University School of the Arts

Work
Using an irreverent mixture of fiction, documentary and experimental genres, Shelly Silver’s work in film, video, installation and photography is funny, poetic and formally beautiful, seducing the viewer into pondering such difficult issues as the cracks in our most common assumptions, the impossibility of a shared language, and the ambivalent and yet overwhelming need to belong—to a family, a nation, a gender, an ideology.

Exhibitions and awards
She has been exhibited widely throughout the US, Europe and Asia at venues such as MoMA, the ICP, MoCA, The Yokohama Museum, The Pompidou Center, The Kyoto Museum, the London ICA, The London, Singapore, New York, Moscow and Berlin Film Festivals. Silver has received numerous fellowships and grants from organizations such as the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the NEA, NYSCA, NYFA, the Jerome Foundation, the Japan Foundation and Anonymous was a Woman. Broadcasts include BBC/England, PBS/USA, Arte/Germany, France, Planete/Europe, RTÉ/Ireland, SWR/Germany, Atenor/Spain.

Film/videography

 * 5 lessons and 9 questions about Chinatown, 10:00, 2009
 * exceptional happenings, 17:00 loop, 2008 (three-channel installation)
 * in complete world, 52:00, 2008
 * What I'm Looking For, 15:00, 2004/5 (single-channel & installation)
 * suicide, 70:00, 2003
 * ROOSTER, four-channel installation, 2001-2002
 * 1, 3:15, 2001
 * Hidden Among the Leaves, (collaborative installation with Nika Spalinger) 2000-2001
 * small lies, Big Truth, 18:48, 1999
 * 37 Stories About Leaving Home, 52:00, 1996
 * Former East/Former West, 62:00, 1994
 * April 2, 10:00, 1994
 * Fragments, (variable lengths, 1994-ongoing)
 * The Houses That Are Left, 51:00, 1991
 * We, 4:00, 1990
 * getting in, 3:00, 1989
 * Things I Forget To Tell Myself, 2:00, 1989
 * Meet the People, 17:00, 1986