Artist Database

Elfriede Dreyer is an artist, writer, and curator who has held the position of Professor Extraordinarius in the Department of Art History, Visual Arts, and Musicology at the University of South Africa (UNISA) since 2015. In 2005, she co-founded the Fried Contemporary Art Gallery in Pretoria and served as its curator until 2014. In 2015, she founded Contemporary Art Practice (CAP) to offer professional art practice development through workshops, short online courses, and online certificates. Dreyer also serves as Vice President of the South African National Association for the Visual Arts (SANAVA) and adjudicates many national competitions such as Absa l'Atelier, Sasol New Signatures, and The Sanlam Portrait Award. Her art reflects her academic work and explores the themes of utopia, dystopia, and heterotopia.

Dreyer’s works have been exhibited in many major galleries, museums, universities, and arts festivals both nationally and internationally and are held in art collections such as the University of Pretoria, UNISA, Telkom, and FNB.