Born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in 1958, Tavares currently works and lives in Sao Paulo. She attained an MFA degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1986) and a PhD from the University of S?o Paulo (2000). In 2001 she was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Grant. She was the 2007 Ida Ely Rubin Artist-in-Residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), visiting the campus November 12-17, 2007 and March 2-15, 2008.