Silvia Bächli was born in Baden, Switzerland, in 1956. She lives and works in Basel.

Bächli has developed her drawing practice working on sheets of white paper of different sizes, qualities and tones, and using Indian ink, charcoal, gouache or pastels. Using the body and its movements as a starting point, her work spreads into everything that can be considered part of the realm of feeling. In this way she presents a reality made up of fragments and impressions. The result is not just painterly moments: the drawings often seem to capture, as if in film stills, a cinematic way of looking at bodies and things or their details, at landscapes, gestures, structures, and processes. Her works tell stories without an actual beginning or end, just a visualization of a moment captured in time.

Important solo exhibitions have been dedicated to her, including: Interstices, LaBF15, Lyon (2021); Shift, Kunsthalle Karlsruhe (2019); Situer la différence, Centre culturel suisse, Paris (2017, with Eric Hattan); weiter.wird.Les abords, Frac Franche-Comté, Besançon (2015); Brombeeren, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (2014); Far apart - close together, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (2012). Silvia Bächli has been included in a number of group shows, including: Resonating Spaces, Fondation Beyeler, Basel (2019); Mask: In Present-Day Art, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau (2019); To have a shelf live, Eric Hattan & Silvia Bächli, Art Basel | Parcours (2018); Drawing Now, Albertina, Vienna (2015); Biens communs I, acquisitions récentes, Mamco, Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Geneva (2011); elles@centrepompidou, artistes femmes dans les collections du Centre Pompidou, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2010). She represented Switzerland at the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009). Bächli’s works are featured in numerous major collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Kunstmuseum, Basel; Kunstmuseum St.Gallen; Staatliche Graphische Sammlung and Neue Pinakothek, Munich; Mamco, Geneva; The Art Institute of Chicago.