[More than] 30 years of Working and Producing in the Visual Arts industry
Book a personal zoom consultation with me on your art ideas or processes.
I mentor self-taught, undergraduate and postgraduate students.
We zoom from your studio or wherever is best for you.
Personal particulars
Nationality: South African
Contact details: +27 83 2712342 elfriede.dreyer@gmail.com
Short bio
Elfriede Dreyer is an internationally recognised curator, artist and academic mentor. She is interested in intermediality in art practice, especially in the interfaces of digital and physical media. In her theoretical and practical research she interrogates existentiality and worldmaking constructs with a special focus on the articulations of utopia, dystopia and heterotopia. Her artworks have been exhibited at major galleries, museums, universities and art festivals, and have been taken up in the Collections of the University of Pretoria, Unisa, Telkom, the DBSA, FNB, and various private collections. Besides being a finalist in most of the South African national competitions, also the Brett Kebble Award, she held solo exhibitions in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Paris and Oudtshoorn. She has been affiliated with the University of South Africa as Extraordinary Professor in Art since 2015. Formerly she lectured full-time at Unisa from 1990 to 2003, and from 2003 to 2014 at the University of Pretoria as Full Professor, teaching in both Fine Arts and Art History and specialising in postgraduate studies. Elfriede was the Academic Dean at the Open Window Institute from 2014 to 2015 and she worked as a museum scientist for the Art Bank of South Africa in 2019. Her academic publications appeared in local and internal academic journals and books. Besides founding Fried Contemporary Gallery in Pretoria in 2005 and curating there for 10 years, she continues to curate nationally and internationally at major galleries and museums.. She has adjudicated at most of the national competitions such Absa l'Atelier, Sasol New Signatures, and the Portrait Award. Elfriede has the creative ability and sense of entrepreneurship to produce vision and solutions in the context of the discipline of Visual Arts. She is widely known as a mentor and has the ability to develop artistic talent in others. A key strong point is her complex and interdisciplinary frame of reference due to her academic qualifications in Art History, Visual Arts, Interactive Multimedia, European languages, Music and Philosophy. She received several bursaries as a student and as a professional continues to receive grants from prestigious institutions, including being awarded NRF rating in 2012 and again in 2018.