Zara has worked in lead roles in art galleries in Aotearoa and Australia including Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Heide Museum and Monash University Museum of Art in Australia, and Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and Adam Art Gallery in Aotearoa New Zealand. She is concerned with engaging audiences and communities with contemporary art and ideas through meaningful exhibitions, publications, and creative dialogues in galleries and in public space, and enabler of collaborations that foster connections and understanding through art across the Global South. She was the Lead Curator for New Zealand at Venice at the 58th La Biennale di Venezia, 2019 and for the 9th and the forthcoming 10th Asia Pacific Triennials at QAGOMA (until January 2021) and has curated over 50 exhibitions.

A writer and editor, she has a PhD from the Australian National University and is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Art and Design at AUT University, Auckland and at RMIT University, Melbourne.