Sylvia Safdie

Sylvia Safdie (born 1942) is a Canadian artist who gathers and utilizes found natural materials in a variety of mediums such as painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, photography and video to explore different themes in her work, calling upon early childhood memories, her Jewish heritage, and her experience of moving from Israel to Canada. She works and lives in Montreal, Québec.

Early life and education Sylvia Safdie was born in Aley, Lebanon, on August 17, 1942, to her parents Leon and Rachel Safdie. She was born into Syrian Jewish family, the youngest of three siblings. Her eldest brother, Moshe Safdie (born 1938) is an architect, and her other brother, Gabriel Safdie (born 1940) is a poet and literature teacher. She spent her early childhood years in Mount Carmel, Israel, but at age eleven, her family moved from Haifa, Israel to Montréal, Québec in 1953.

Artistic career Safdie's early childhood memories, her Middle Eastern Jewish heritage, and experiences in Israel, followed by moving to a new country, are main sources of inspiration and inform her five-decade-long artistic career. As a child, she would build sandcastles on the beaches near Haifa, where she became aware of their vulnerability amongst the waves with time, and further increased her fascination with transiency. Scratching away and layering are among many physical techniques that characterize her process of painting. Her representation of the connection between the human figure, especially the female form, and the natural world is borderline abstract, yet consists of figurative representation. Her process demonstrates her subject in a state of transformation that is emerging, disappearing, or “presently absent”. Her depiction of lost or displaced humans puts emphasis not on emptiness, but on how their presence lives on through traces in the natural world.

Selected Works/Series Earth Marks Series (1997-). In 2021, she had an exhibition titled As I Walk at the Darling Foundry in Montreal called "a masterly installation" by the Canadian art magazine Vie des Arts and "haunting" by Art Forum. In 2025 and 2026, Sylvia Safdie: TERRA was held at the National Gallery of Canada.

He work has been included in numerous group shows since 1978. Among them were the First Biennale for Québec Artists, Galerie du Centre des arts Saidye Bronfman, Montréal (1978); Face à face, Powerhouse Gallery, Montréal (1984); Hidden Values, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, Ontario (1994); 25 Artists, 25 years: Celebrating the Faculty of Fine Arts, Galerie d'art Leonard & Bina Ellen, Université Concordia, Montréal (2001); Second Guanlan International Print Biennial 2009, Guanlan Museum, Shenzhen, China; and These Waters Have Stories To Tell, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, Wales (2018).

Collections Her work is in the collection of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and elsewhere in Canada, as well as in galleries in the United States, Brazil, Switzerland, and Denmark.

Awards/Prizes First Biennale for Québec Artists, Galerie du Centre des arts Saidye Bronfman, Montréal (1977) Canada Council, Project Grant Gouvernement du Québec, Ministère des affaires culturelles, aide "Accessibilité" (1980/1987) Gouvernement du Québec, Ministère des affaires culturelles, bourse “A” Thomas More Institute, Montréal - first prize (1991/1993) Canada Council, "B" Grant (1993)