Zach Pearl is an editor, curator, designer and graphic artist based in Toronto.
American-born and raised in the heart of the Midwest, Zach has been living in Canada since 2010. He currently works as the Managing Editor of PUBLIC, a Toronto-based journal that blends peer-reviewed and creative writing on contemporary art and visual culture. Since 2012, he's also worked as an adjunct instructor in Graphic Design and Interactive Media at OCAD University (formerly known as Ontario College of Art & Design).
Zach completed his PhD in English, with a focus on media theory and literary theory, from the University of Waterloo in 2023. His dissertation research on the history of fictocriticism in Canada and its relationship to cyberfeminist art and philosophy was both SSHRC and OAG funded. Before that, he also completed a Masters of Fine Arts from OCAD University in the Criticism and Curatorial Practice program, where he specialized in media art curation.
Between 2013 and 2018, Zach was also the co-founder, graphic designer, and managing editor of KAPSULA PRESS, a digital publishing platform for critical and experimental arts writing. From 2018-2021, he also sat on the editorial board of Mechademia—a biannual peer-reviewed journal focusing on Asian popular cultures as they relate to media and representation. And, from 2014-2017, Zach served as Artistic Director of Subtle Technologies, an annual festival in Toronto that showcases new ideas and objects at the nexus of art, science, and technology.
Zach is classically trained in drawing, painting, and fabrication, and holds a BFA with honours in Graphic Design & Illustration from the Minneapolis College of Art & Design. For nearly a decade, Zach worked freelance as an independent curator and programming coordinator specializing in interactive media, contemporary video art, and experiential learning. He's created public programs for several major Canadian art institutions such as the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Textile Museum of Canada, Interaccess, the Gladstone Hotel, Vtape and Eastern Edge in St. John's, Newfoundland. Before moving to Canada in 2010, Zach spent five years in the public programs department for the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and three years as the Assistant Coordinator for the Susan Hensel Gallery.