EN/FR
Untitled, 2017
Acrylic on canvas
36 × 48 in
Oil on canvas
30x36
Acrylic on canvas
36x48
Acrylic on canvas
36x48
Oil on canvas
30x40
Acrylic on canvas
16x20
Acrylic on canvas
48x48
Acrylic on canvas
38x48
Biography
Débora Tavares is a painter and educator whose work explores artistic practice as a tool to engage with neurodiversity. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Art Education from Concordia University (2022) and a Diploma of College Studies (DEC) in Visual Arts from Cégep de l’Outaouais (2004). Based in Montreal since 2005, her work has drawn inspiration from the city’s urban environment and its natural geometry, in contrast with the emotional landscape of the human experience.
Throughout her academic journey, she developed a unique discipline by combining her studies in fashion design and visual arts. After several years refining her creative and technical skills in the fashion and garment industry, where her work was featured in La Presse. She returned to visual arts as her primary practice. Her interest in pedagogy led her to pursue studies in art education, where she explored multiple media, including photography, acrylic and oil painting, and drawing with charcoal and graphite.
Tavares approaches painting as a space of refuge, a method of engaging with the emotional realm, and a channel for transmission.
.Education
Concordia University, Montreal- Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA),Art Education — 2022
LaSalle College, Montreal- AEC,
Fashion Design (menswear Specialization) — 2011
Cégep Marie-Victorin, Montreal- DEC
Fashion Design (Womenswear, Fur & Leather specialization) — 2008
Cégep de l’Outaouais- DEC,
Visual Arts — 2004
Artist Statement
I paint as a way to engage with neurodiversity and the impact of anxiety on both the body and the psyche. Drawing from lived experience and my emotional landscape, I create spaces that aim to release tension and evoke calmly through geometry and a personal language of colour.
My photographic practice informs how I observe and compose. I find inspiration in everyday moments and in the urban fabric of Montreal. I pay close attention to the negative spaces and to different ways of seeing things. I am interested in what is present as much as what is absent, how silence, gaps, and subtle shifts can reshape perception.
Through my work, I explore themes of vulnerability, resilience, and renewal. The interplay between familiar forms, geometry, and distortion creates both a sense of proximity and openness, allowing space for individual interpretation.
I primarily work with acrylic and oil painting. The immediacy of acrylic allows me to translate states of chaos and turbulence into abstract compositions through gesture, texture, and layering. Oil, with its slower process and depth, supports my figurative work, inviting stillness and contemplation. Geometry often emerges within my landscapes, offering a structure within disorder and guiding the viewer’s gaze.
Across my practice, painting becomes a space of transformation, where accumulation, release, and emotional movement can take form.
Exhibitions and Presentations
Emerging Artists Group Exhibition
Montreal Art Center and Museum, Montréal — 2026
Group Exhibition Anticafé, Montréal — 2019
Exhibited drawings and photographs alongside fellow Art Education students from Concordia University.
Fashion Show
Rialto Theatre, Montréal — 2011
Presentation of original Fall/Winter fashion designs.
Fashion Show
Bain Mathieu, Montréal — 2011
Presentation of original Spring/Summer fashion designs.
Art Education
2026
Abstract Painting Workshops (2)
Facilitated two introductory abstract painting workshops for the public.
2019–2020
Concordia University Student Parents Centre (CUSP), Montréal
Taught visual arts to children aged 4–10.
2018–2019
Dawson Boys and Girls Club, Montréal
Facilitated visual arts workshops for adolescents.
2018
Willingdon Elementary School (EMSB), Montréal
Observation placement in visual arts education.