Maria Silk (previously Silk Worm) is an artist working in choreography, performance, and video. Her artistic work operates on two tracks: the relationship of embodiment, sensation, and movement to language; and the task of unearthing the submerged histories of violence animating queer and trans life in the US. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Silk has been based in the San Francisco Bay Area since 2012. Her research-based, interdisciplinary practice emerges from years of immersion in Bay Area queer nightlife. The Bay Area’s unique legacy of drag performance and its over-the-top aesthetic remains central to her work.
Silk has shown her work at CounterPulse, Berkeley Art Museum, the Cantor Center for the Arts, / (Slash), 2727 California Street, Fierce! Festival, h0L0, and the Pittsburgh Performance Art Festival. Silk was a 2017 danceWEB Scholar at ImPulsTanz, and she holds a BA and MA from Stanford University. With Brittany Newell she co-directs HUSH-HUSH, an event series programming experimental work by local queer and trans artists.
Silk’s work is a fiscally sponsored project of Jess Curtis / Gravity.
Silk is known as a very good sport.
contact: miss.silk.worm [at] gmail [dot] com
photo by Robbie Sweeny
CV
PUBLICATIONS
“The Eyes of Others,” Open Space from SFMOMA, September 2021
“Lifetime Achievement,” untitled volume from Slash Art, June 2021
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES
Lessons in Anatomy (work-in-progress excerpt), CounterPulse (SF), performance, November 2022
The jaws of all are red with gore, CounterPulse (SF), performance, August 2022
Don’t Ask Me, /room/ at Slash Art (SF), solo show of video work, May – August 2022
The Last Waltz, Delaplane (SF), group show, March 2022
Lifetime Achievement, The Stud (SF), screening, June 2021
GEN, Beauty Supply Arts (Oakland), performance, November 2019
knowing me, Clump TV (Berlin), performance, October 2019
crummy sheets, Berkeley Art Museum, performance, October 2019
Bottom Bride, Fierce! Festival (Birmingham, UK), performance, October 2019
Bottom Bride, Pittsburgh Performance Art Festival, performance, August 2019
Bottom Bride, 2727 California Street (Berkeley), performance, July 2019
knowing me, HIT Gallery (SF), performance, April 2019
Bottom Bride, h0L0 (New York City), performance, November 2018
Bottom Bride, National Queer Arts Festival (SF), performance, June 2018
Bad Acting, Cantor Center for the Arts (Stanford), performance, May 2017
PRESENTATIONS, LECTURES, AND WORKSHOPS
“Dancing in Tongues,” dance workshop, KH Fresh Festival, March 2023
“Don’t Ask Me: A Screening and Conversation between Silk Worm and hannah baer,” / (Slash), June 2022
“If You Shout ‘Brick!’,” performance lecture, Place Talks at the Prelinger Library, November 2019
“Bad Acting 101: A Workshop,” creative workshop, California College for the Arts, November 2017, 2018, and 2019
AS A PERFORMER IN OTHERS’ WORK
Bacchae Before by Hope Mohr and Maxe Crandall, Joe Goode Annex, September 2021
Colossus by Cornelius, CounterPulse, April 2021
Drag House by Cornelius, CounterPulse, May and June 2019
I’m Very Into You by Sara Lyons, Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, November 2018
Out of Place, In Place by Futurefarmers, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, March 2018
GRANTS, HONORS, AWARDS, AND FELLOWSHIPS
Dresher Ensemble Artist Residency, Paul Dresher Ensemble, July 2022
San Francisco Artist Grant, San Francisco Arts Commission, June 2022
CA$H Dance Grant, Dancers’ Group, June 2022
CA$H Creates Grant, Theatre Bay Area, June 2022
Artist Power Convenings Grant, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, December 2021
Individual Artist Commission Grant, San Francisco Arts Commission, June 2020
GENERATE Programme, British Council and Arts Council England, October 2019
Alternative Exposure Grant, Southern Exposure, December 2019
danceWEB Scholarship, ImpulsTanz International Dance Festival, July 2017
Cantor Scholarship, Cantor Center for the Arts, January – June 2017
SELECTED CURATORIAL EXPERIENCE
HUSH-HUSH, Co-Founder and Co-Curator, various venues, February 2017 to present
High Fantasy Memory Index (archival exhibition), Co-Curator, Tenderloin Museum, 2020
This, That, and the Third (group show), Curator, HIT Gallery, 2019
Sweet Nothings (artist talk series), Curator, 2019
EDUCATION
MA, Stanford University, Art History, 2017
BA, Stanford University, Theater and Performance Studies, 2017
Maria Silk 