b. 1952, United Kingdom
The British performance artist, sculptor, and photographer, Silvia Ziranek, was born in London and studied Russian and Arabic at the University of Leeds before leaving to study Fine Art at Croydon College of Art (1972-73) and Goldsmiths (1973-76).
The art historian Katie Deepwell has described how Ziranek’s “witty performances have opened galleries, launched events and been seen at numerous festivals, with readings of her texts in venues internationally. She is part of the same generation of innovative and independent women performance artists from the UK as Bobby Baker, Rose English, Anne Bean and Rose Finn-Kelcey.”
Ziranek states: "Through word and wardrobe, text and textile, image and imagination, I investigate, dislocate, re-present and re-locate The Domestic on an epic scale." Her book, 'Very Food' was the first artists' book published by Book Works in 1987.
Ziranek has recently exhibited in 'Women’s Works: Artists working in 1970s & 80s London', an exhibition held at England & Co's project space off Picadilly; and has also shown her performance-related photgraphs from the late 1970s and 1980s with England & Co at Paris Photo (2023) and at Photo London (2024).