SILVI NAÇI
Straddling the inter-relationships of scholar, artist, activist, and researcher, I work at the intersections of the co-constituted relationships between counter-archives, women’s/queer studies, translation, and traditional textile practices in Albania, the Balkans, the post-Ottoman Middle East, and its diasporas. Committed to trans-queer-feminist and decolonial praxis, I engage arts-based pedagogy, traditional craft practices, translation, and community collaboration to address migration, labor, and human rights, while interrogating the intersections of power and the politics of cultural and knowledge production in global contexts.
EDUCATION
2024 – present PhD Global Studies, University of California Irvine, US
2019 MFA in Photography & Media | California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
2011 BFA in Fine Arts & Graphic Design | Suffolk University, Boston, MA
2008 Studio Art Centers International, Florence, Italy
TEACHING
2024 Figure Drawing Faculty, CSSSA, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA Visiting Artist, The Getty, at GenSpace, with Feminist Center for Creative Work, Los Angeles, CA
2022 – 2023 Visiting Artist, Craft Contemporary Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2019 – present Assistant Professor, Photo Arts Conservatory at NYFA, Los Angeles, CA
2018 – 2019 Graduate Teaching Assistant, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
SELECTED AWARDS, RESIDENCIES, FELLOWSHIPS
2025 Global and International Studies Conference Travel Award, UCI
Graduate Fellowship, School of Social Sciences, UCI
perfocraZe International Artist Residency, Kumasi, GH
Feminist Center for Creative Work, Los Angeles, CA
2023 Vermont Studio Center, VT
Bulevard, Art and Media Institute, Tirana, AL
2022 Transformative Arts: Évora NAU, Évora, PT
2020 emi kuriyama spirit award
2019 Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art, Berlin, DE
2018-2019 Tim Disney Excellence in Storytelling Prize, California Institute of The Arts, Valencia, CA
Curatorial and Development Fellow, Arts in a Changing America
Felix Gonzalez-Torres Travel Grant, California Institute of The Arts, Valencia, CA
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2024 S2 E3 Bodily Wisdom: An Interview with Silvi Naçi, Embodied Worlds, The Jugaad Project
Paul Mpagi Sepuya. Dark Room. Aperture
FUTURE/PRESENT: Culture in a Changing America, the ArtChangeUS capstone anthology,
edited by Daniela Alvarez, Roberta Uno, Elizabeth Webb, Duke Press University
2023 Artists at Work Anthology, East of Borneo, Los Angeles, CA
Alia Ahmad: A meadow … from a dream, Artsy Editorial, Los Angeles, CA
2022 queerness and craft, Re-Research Essay, X–TRA Online
Mark McKnight and Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Hunter Fashion Magazine, Issue 39, Milan, IT
2021 Kyungmi Shin: citizen, not barbarian. Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles
2020 Artists at Work: Candice Lin, East of Borneo, Los Angeles, CA
Magda Fernández: Look Me in The Eye, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Arnheim Gallery, Catalog Essay Contribution.
2019 Visual Essay, Rico Gatson, NKA Journal of Contemporary African Art, Ithaca, NY
Artists at Work: Todd Gray, East of Borneo, Los Angeles, CA
2017 Nari Ward: Neutralize Naturalization. Ica Boston. Big Red & Shiny, Boston, MA
ISSUES OF POWER: Resilience and Healing. Juan Roberto Diago: The Past of This Afro-Cuban Present at The Cooper Gallery, Big Red & Shiny, Boston, MA
2016 ISSUES OF POWER: The Space Between Ignorance & Acknowledgement. Carrie Mae Weems: I once knew a girl...” at the Cooper Gallery at Harvard University, Big Red & Shiny, Boston, MA
CONFERENCES
2025 (Re)Visioning Narratives, History Graduate Student Association (HGSA) Annual Conference, UCI
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2020 – 2023 Shin Gray Studio | Studio Manager
2019 – 2020 Ashley Hunt Studio | Studio Manager
2017 – 2019 California Institute of the Arts | Photography and Media Archivist
2014 – 2016 Samsøñ Projects | Assistant Director
2013 – 2015 Liquid Art House | Art Director
RESEARCH
2019 – present My research is situated at the intersection of the co-constituted relationships between counter-archives, women's/queer studies, translation, and traditional craft practices in Albania, the Balkans, post-Ottoman Middle East, and its diaspora.
2018 – present Radical Sense is a radical feminist reading group convened at 28 November in Tirana, Albania. It is collectively run by Silvi Naçi, Doruntina Vinca, and Leah Whitman-Salkin. Founded in 2018, Radical Sense is a space of reading, listening, and thinking together, as well as a space for creating bonds of community and solidarity.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2024 Wrapped in the Shadow of Freedom, Kosovo, XK
INTERSECTION: NIGHT, Live Performance, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Turning illness into a weapon, Kunstraum, Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin, DE
The Event of a Thread - Global Narratives in Textiles, The National Gallery of Kosovo, XK
The Bow Wake [Vala e Harkut], Film Screening, Kino Apoteka, Croatia, HR
2023 Mind the Gap, Altreforme, Udine, Italy
Woven Together, Durden & Ray, Los Angeles, CA
The Archive as Encounter, Bulevard, Art and Media Institute, AL
Ekrani i Artit, Art House, Shkodër, AL
2022 Adornment | Artifact, Band of Vices, curated by jill moniz, Los Angeles, CA
Manifesta 14, Prishtina, XK, curated by Catherine Nichols
Secondary Archive, The National Gallery of Kosovo, Manifesta 14 Prishtina, XK
Biddy’s Garden, Transformative Arts, curated by jill moniz, Los Angeles, CA
2021 Synime (Ambitions), National Gallery of Art, Tirana, AL; The National Gallery of Kosovo, XK
2020 Archive Machines, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, LA, CA
2019 CARE, MFA Final Exhibition, Gallery D300 | California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
COLLECTIONS
Public Art Fund of the Republic of Kosova, XK; California Institute of the Arts Library, Valencia, CA; ÉVORA NAU, Portugal, PT; Elsewhere Museum and Residency, Greensboro, NC; W. Van Alan Clark, Jr. Library, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University, Boston, MA; Colby College Libraries, Waterville, ME