mixed media on denim
lithograph on rives bfk
graphite on rives bfk
intaglio on laser cut rives bfk
a hand, a handkerchief, coyote teeth
intaglio on rives bfk
pastel and mixed media on childrens bedsheets
Vero Silva is a queer Chicane artist from New Mexico working primarily in
printmaking, mixed media painting, and textile manipulation. Their practice
explores iterations of the female form while reflecting on their chicane heritage,
queer identity, and the body's relationship to the natural world. Their work is
rooted in sustainability and process, treating art-making as a continuous
life-connected practice. Their work uses biomorphic abstraction to explore the
human experience as inseparable from nature— positioning the body as a type of
landscape wherein all experiences are manifested physically through contortion
and evolution.
To create is to reflect on both ecological cycles and the embodied experience.
What does it mean to be seen? What does it mean to know yourself, your body?
Artmaking is a way of life and a fundamental aspect of my being, through creation I am able to learn the most intimate parts of myself, which may otherwise remain hidden.
My work exists at the intersection of body dysmorphia and gender dysphoria; the forms I create reclaim my once volatile and hostile experience with adolescence through a queer lens. In the culmination of my work, I push and blur the lines of beauty and unease through the contortion of limbs, folds and creases, and impossibly exaggerated anatomy. Through the manipulation of a female form, I am able to capture the discomfort I associate with my existence in a body. Through creation, I am able to turn intangible moments, emotions, and sensations into a physical object– solidifying my experiences as real.
Each piece I create is a part of me, and serves as a non-traditional self-portrait. My work pays homage to the resilience of our bodies. My identity and experience with my body are fundamentally inseparable from the land on which I grew up.
To me, where my body ends, and the earth begins is not a finite boundary. I find that the human experience mirrors the land around us; permeable and transient, yet undeniably enduring of hardships and pain, overwhelming yet serene.
Do you know yourself? Your body? Are you seen?
Education
University of Denver Bachelor of Fine Arts
Magna Cum Laude
2025
New Mexico School for the Arts
2021
Contact at
vero.silva@du.edu
@y3ntzz on instagram
Recent Exhibitions
(upcoming) Journeys
Denver, CO
2026
Homecoming Alumni Invitational
Santa Fe, NM
2026
Queer Impressions
Chicago, IL
2025
Embodied, Unspoken
Denver, CO
2025
Hidden Experiences
Denver, CO
2025
A Graphic Journey;Prints by
Pablo Picasso and Student Works
Longmont, CO
2025
Out:Dated
Denver, CO
2024
Awards and Gran
NOVA Award, SPARK Gallery, CO
Directors Choice Award, University of Denver, CO
Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award, University of Denver, CO
Create Award, University of Denver, CO
PinS Grant Award, University of Denver, CO
Hornbeck Scholar, University of Denver, CO
Anderson Ranch Scholarship Recipient, Anderson Ranch Snowmass, CO
Breakthrough Scholar Davis Scholarship, NM
First Generation Davis Scholarship Recipient, NM