Born in New York in 1957, Shelly Sillver received a B.A. and a B.F.A. from Cornell University, and studied in the Whitney Museum of American Art Independant Study Program. She has received numerous grants including from The National Edowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, The Japan Foundation, The DAAD, and the Anonymous Was A Woman Foundation. Her work has been exhibited  in many festivals around the world, in Italy, the Hague, Berlin, New York and Tokyo. Shelly Silver currently lives in New York City.