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  Education  

                                                                                 

• Ph.D. Visual Art, York University, Toronto (2022-present)

• MFA in Visual Arts, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design, York University, Toronto (2020)

• Toronto School of Art (2004 - 2006)

• B.A. Social Sciences & Communication, Open University (1999)

 

  Grants | Awards  

                                                                     

• Ontario Art Council - Dance creation, in collaboration with Naish Wang (2026)

• Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2023-2026)

• Master’s Thesis Nomination, Graduate Program, York University Visual Arts & Art History (2020)

• The Joseph Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship - Master's SSHRC  (2019)

• Ontario Graduate Scholarship recipient (2019)

• CIBC Graduate Research Grant - nomination (2020)

• Ontario Arts Council - Exhibition Assistance Grant (2018)

• Ontario Arts Council - Exhibition Assistance Grant (2017)

• Canada Council for the Arts - Travel Grant Recipient (2016)

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Residency

                                                                        

• Artist in Residence, Tao Hua Tan Residency, Anhui, China (2026)

• Las Nubes Environmental and Urban Change, Effective Intercultural Communication, Costa Rica (2025)

• Citadel Dance, Performative research, in collaboration with Naishi Wang (2025)

• PlaySpace art & research Residency, The Laboratory for Artistic Intelligence, Toronto (2024)

• Kunstbereit e. V. Creation Doors Choreographers (2021)

• Lilach Pnina Livne Dance Institute. De Spirit - Performative research (2021)

• The Creative Native Project - Mentorship program, The Center for Indigenous Research Creation (2020)

• Luminato & IL Laboratory What Art Has to Offer Immigration, Mentorship program for newcomers. Toronto (2021)

 

Selected solo exhibition                                                                                   

 

• Inscribed Body, Assemblies of gesture, Gales Gallery, Toronto (2025)

• Variations on Broken Lines, Lamashu Artspace, Toronto (2023)

• Nuit Blanche Toronto, Public installation at North York Library Centre, second iteration Variations on Broken Lines, Toronto (2022)

• Shared View, Curated by Claudia Arana for HOME|LAND, Artworx TO, Toronto (2022)

• Variations on Broken Lines, First iteration. MFA Research-creation project, Gales Gallery, Toronto (2020) 

• Choreographed Marks. curated by Anik Glaude, The Varley Art Gallery of Markham, Canada (2019)

• Knowing river, body notes,  Sheldon Rose Gallery, Toronto (2018). 

• Green Polyphonies. curated by Iberina Raquel Vilhena, Walnut Contemporary, Toronto (2017)

• Untitled Wall. Wallspace Gallery, Ottawa (2015) 

• Personifications, Curated by Rocco Barriuso, JulieM Gallery, Toronto (2014)

• Rituals. Curated by Patricia Barr, Wallspace Gallery Ottawa (2013) 

• Traces: Encaustic works. JulieM Gallery, Toronto (2013)

• Anong Beam & Nava Messas Waxman: Connections within, Two-women solo exhibition, Earls Court Gallery (2011)

• Reveries: encaustic works, Engine Gallery, Hamilton (2009)

• Encaustic drawings, Blue Dot Gallery, Toronto (2007)

 

 

Selected group exhibition   

                                                                                    

• Body Electric Group Exhibition & Live Performance, Curated by n::d Studio Lab, CSV Toronto (2025)

• flashDRIVE: Digital Arts Fundraiser Exhibition, curated by Miriam Arbus, InterAccess, Toronto (2025)

• Disassociation: The unseen within, Group exhibition, curated by Hannah Rothchild, Prescop Gallery (2025) 

• Speculative Meteorology: Weather Channeled, curated by Aftab Mirzaei, SPG Gallery, Toronto (2025)

• Tentacular Futures. curated by Marissa Largo & Rebecca Caines. The gallery of Markham, YorkU School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (2024)

• Entangled Dimensions: Art in the Age of Neural Media, curated by Ryan Kelln, The Illuminarium Toronto (2024)

• eNmotion, Experimental Transmedia Installation, Transmedia Lab YorkU (2023) 

• I want to be new again, Digital performance that explores the spiritual and sacred ritualistic acts with algorithms, crafting possible poetic meanings of praying through sensorial embodied movement (2022)

• A Visual Music Exquisite Corpse, Telematic performance installation, collaborative performance with  n::D Studio Lab, curated by Dr. Mark-David Hosale (2023)

• Gender and the Lens |||, Feminist Photography Network, curated by Robyn Cummings, Clair Samuel & Liz Kiriko (2022)

• Crossing Time Zone, International group exhibition, Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts & Sino-Canada Alliance of Arts and Culture (2022)

• Mobius: open work. LaMashu ArtSpace, Toronto, Live performance and performative installation, in collaboration with Alireza Keymanesh and Maria Kravchenko (2023)

• Blue Gestures. In collaboration with Ronley Teper & Tim Posgate, Orchard Lyceum Gallery, Toronto (2022)

• Terrapolis, a series of live performance events, Supernova, Toronto. In collaboration with Ilze Briede & Marcus Gordon. Supernova, Toronto (2021)

• MMXII* MFA group exhibition, Gales Gallery, York University (2021)

• Waves, group exhibition, curated by Anik Glaude, The Varley Art Gallery of Markham (2020)

• Open Work, Sebastian Ureamuno, Cinzia Cavalieri, Maria Kravchenko, Mahsa Alikhani, Gales Gallery York University, Toronto (2019)

• Mobiux. On-going Intermedial performance project, comprising performance events, collaboration, workshop, film and installation (2019-2021) 

• Knowing River, body Notes, Live installation event, in collaboration with Lo Bil, Ronley Teper, David Jager & Tim Postage Sheldon Rose Gallery, Toronto (2018)

• Strings. Live performance in collaboration with Tomoki Takeuchi and Paris Zhang. Toronto (2017)

• Elements of Chance, Collaborative durational performance, The 4th International Draw to Perform Symposium, Crows Nest Gallery, London, UK (2016)

• Sonix,  live encaustic inscriptions, in collaboration with Ram Samocha, Crows Nest Gallery, London UK (2016)

• Group exhibition, Body - A Non-Figurative” Var Gallery Wisconsin (2016)

• Bird has a Face for You, Live performance, in collaboration with Adaya Godlevsky, & Uri Levinson, Alfred Institute (2016)

• Inscriptions,  Nava M Waxman & Adaya Godlevsky. The Petah Tikva Museum of Art, Israel. (2015)

• Mobius. Live drawing performance, Nava M Waxman & Ram Samocha, Draw to Perform Symposium, OCADU, Toronto. (2015)

• The Verge Art Fair Miami,  Paper works (2012)

• Contemporary Women Artists XVI, Women’s Caucus for Art, St. Louis USA (2011)

• Consequential Fusion, encaustic work, group exhibition, Art Centre, Morro Bay, CA (2011)

• Light On, Group exhibition, Hovinkartano Arts and Cultural Centre, Hauho, Finland (2010)

• Insomnia, Group exhibition, part of TO Nuit Blanche, ReadHead Gallery, Toronto (2009)

• The Legacy of the Circle, Group exhibition, McKay Art Centre, Markham (2007)

Affiliation 

                                                                      

• Graduate research member, the n::D Studio Lab, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design, York University, Toronto. (2022-present)

• Graduate Research associate, The Sensorium Centre for Digital Arts and Technology, School of the Arts, Media (Since 2019)

• Artistic researcher at the laboratory for Artistic Intelligence, Toronto, Canada (since 2020)

• Committee member, York University Markham Campus hoarding exhibit unveiling ceremony (2022)

• York University Speaking Series committee—The Department of Visual Art & Art History (2025-2026)

 

Teaching experience  

 

• 2018-present.  Teaching drawing and photographic experience in the Visual Art department at York University in Toronto, Canada

• Conferences | Academic presentation | Guest speaker

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Conferences | Academic presentation | Guest speaker

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• Bordering Practices: Aesthetic Gestures Across Land, Body, and Digital Space Co-panel chair, the 2025 Universities Art Association of Canada UAAC conference

• Sensorium Web of Connection Symposium. Co-presenting Embodied Movement: Collaborative processes with Sebastian Oreamuno & Arpita Bajpeyi (2024)

• Peace Statue: A Tribute. Performative event,  co-organized with Hong Kal, York Centre for Asian Research & The Sensorium Centre for Digital Art and Technology (2024)

• Guest Artist talk, The Department of Visual Art, York University 

• Variations on Broken Lines. Paper presented at The Resource Centre for Public Sociology, York University. On Liminality (2024)

• Quasimodo: The 26th Generative Art International Conference (GA2023) the Borrominian Hall of the Biblioteca Vallicelliana in Rome (2023)

• Archival Worldmaking, Experimental performative paper presentation, presented at the Graduate course Making Possible World (2023)  

• Rites of Passage in Contemporary Liminality. Paper presented at Motherboard: OCADU CADN Conference (2021)

• From Dematerialization to Re-materialization: Reconstructing Gestures in the Archive, presented at Concordia University AHGSA Conference PRACTICE / PRATIQUE (2020)

• From Dematerialization to Re-materialization: Reconstructing Gestures in the Archive, presented at  Queen’s University. Hindsight 20/20: XIX Context & Meaning The Graduate Visual Culture (2020)

• Nava Messas Waxman. Artist Lecture. Inscribing Presence, Kibbutzim College of Arts, Cinema & Media Studies (2022)

• Diasporic Gestures: Research paper, presented at the Graduate Summer Institute: Border Forms: (Re)drawing Lines, YorkU (2023)

• Nava Messas Waxman. Artist lecture. Palimpsest & Performance as UNmaking -Queen's University and the  MacLaren Art Centre (2023)

 

Reviews | Articles | publication   

                                                                                    

• Field Guide to Speculative Meteorology. Publication. The n-D::StudioLab (2024) 

• Del Fresno-Guillem, Ruth.  Active Preventive Conservations: The creation of Strategies of Prevention. Grupo (2021)

• Price, A. Jill, Unsettling to Unmaking: A Critical Methodology to Help Unmake Anthropocenic Perspectives, Processes and Presentations of Land (2023)

• Karasch, Agnieszka,  Reciprocal Drawing: Bodies’ Co-dependence and Direct Contact in Performance Drawing, Aalto ARTS Books, Aalto University (2023)

• Abu Sarari, Nassim, The Body of Art in the Age of Digital Everything  (2022)

• YesTV Season1|Episode 8. Directed by Igal Hecht. Pathways of Creation. Nava Messas- Waxman & Ho Che Anderson, Documentary film (2021)

•  Small Things Brought Together. Nava Messas Waxman & Robyn Love. Published Interview  (2021)

• Waymark, MFA Visual Art Digital Publication, York University (2020).

• Gateways to Drawing: A Complete Guide Thames & Hudson. Gardner. Stephan, Elements of Chance (2016)

• The Dialogist Review, Performance for the Camera (2016)

• Traces: Poems to Paintings, By Nava M. Waxman & James Wagner, Ceratonia Siliqua Press (2015)