My Biography

Award-winning photographer and artist, Silvia Pecota, born in Toronto in 1961, had an interest in art from an early age. Drawing turned into photography and to this day her camera is always ready. She was the first Canadian woman to hold an exhibition in the former Soviet Union and has also exhibited in Canada, Germany, Italy and Australia.

Her photographs have appeared in top publications in North America as well as Europe. From 1985-2004, has appeared regularly in the Toronto Sun and its affiliated papers and she is presently a contributing photographer and artist to the National Post and it's affiliated papers. Her body of work includes portraits of personalities including: Marcello Mastrioanni, Anthony Quinn,, Don Cherry, Shania Twain as well as many sports figures such as: Wayne Gretzky, Kurt Browning, Elvis Stojko, Joe Carter, Doug Flutie, Hank Ilesic, Katerina Witt as well as many Olympic medalists, NHL, CFL, Major League Baseball Players and Boxers.

In 1992, her love of boxing produced a photo exhibit featuring legendary names including Mike Tyson, Jake Lamotta, Hurricane Carter and Sugar Ray Leonard. These photographs chronicled the triumph and despair in the ring. She later turned her fascination of the boxer into a short documentary titled Lacing On the Gloves, which won her critical acclaim and awards.

In 1994 when Silvia first travelled to the Canadian Arctic for a documentary film shoot she came to realize that there was so little for the children to do. It was then that she began to collect hockey equipment for them and since then has helped send over 8,000 lbs. to northern communities. The result of seven trips to the Arctic has produced a photographic exhibition that launched on March 28, 2000, entitled Spirit of the North; Celebrating the first Anniversary of Nunavut and in the summer of 2001 it was part of an UNESCO sponsored exhibit, "Element Wasser" (The Element of Water), in Volklingen, Germany. More recently, in 2004, her show Nunavut, Personaggi, Paesaggi e Miti dell'Artico Canadese was exhibited in Italy in Desenzano del Garda and in Fonzaso (Belluno).

Silvia's exhibition More Than Just A Pretty Face, at the Joseph D. Carrier Gallery (July 10 - August 18, 2001), included more than 60 large-scale images of women. It displayed the beauty within, capturing and illuminating the inner strengths of such personalities as Shania Twain, Amy Sky, Manon Rheaume and Silvia Tyson. The show was a tribute to all women - from the famous to simply mothers.

Her images of Boxing were on display at Photokina in Cologne Germany 2002 and in December of 2003 her show O'Canada was on exhibition at the AGFA Gallery in Milan, Italy.

Pecota's first children's book, Hockey Across Canada (Mini Mundus Publishing, 2003), includes images digitally created by combining her photography with oil painting. In 2005, with the support of the Government of Nunavut, this book has been translated into Inuktitut.

During the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, she had four separate exhibitions all on the theme of Canada, titled, “Dal Canada all’Italia: Incontro di Tradizioni” (From Canada to Italy, a meeting of traditions). In February 2007, during the Canada Winter Games in Whitehorse, Yukon a series of 21 large canvas prints were on display representing the Inuit and Dene Games.

Silvia Pecota was selected by the Army to participate in the Canadian Forces Artist Program 2003-2005. This gave her the opportunity to take photographs on various bases across Canada as well as to travel to Haiti and four occasions to Afghanistan.

During her assignment in Kandahar, (February 2006), Silvia exhibited a selection of "Canadian" prints at "Canada House" (Kandahar Air Base) - bringing a little "olympic" spirit to the troops. She is presently working on a book on the Canadian Soldier.