Elsy Zavarce

Elsy Zavarce is a multidisciplinary visual artist, curator, interdisciplinary researcher, and Professor Emerita at the University of Zulia. Born in Canada and raised in Maracaibo, Venezuela, she is currently based in Montreal. She completed her PhD in Art Education at Concordia University in June 2025, where her research focused on socially engaged art, curatorial practice, and art-based research as frameworks for fostering community, belonging, and social transformation.

She is the founder and coordinator of Escolarte, an educational and curatorial program for high school students in Maracaibo that approaches art as a situated and transformative practice. Her work explores the roles of artists, educators, and curators in building communities of practice and co-creating spaces that nurture imagination, resilience, and collective agency.

During her doctoral studies, she received several recognitions, including a SSHRC award (2023), a Research-Creation Grant from COHDS (2023), Concordia Conference and Exposition Awards (2023, 2024), the Elspeth McConnell Fine Arts Internship Award (2022), the Concordia Merit Scholarship (2019–2020), and the Concordia Merit Scholarship – Faculty of Fine Arts (2021–2022).

As an artist, Zavarce works across installation, objects, and participatory practices. Her work has been exhibited in Venezuela, Canada, and the United States, and is included in public and private collections, including the Museum of the Americas. Selected exhibitions include recent group exhibitions, such as Relational Discourses II and Weaving Histories | Tejiendo Historias (Miami, 2025), A.llegadxs (FOFA Gallery, 2023) and Creadoras (National Gallery of Venezuela, 2023). Her artist-curatorial projects include Ene Incident (1999–2014), Body in Question (MACZUL, 2018), and Confined Bodies (MACZUL, 2020). Her work has received distinctions such as Special Mention at the Aragua Art Salon (2012) and First Prize in three-dimensional work at the Caribbean Art Salon (2000).