About + CV

Bio. – Elize de Beer

my studio space at Sample-Studios

Elize de Beer is a South African artist currently based in Cork and working from her studio at Sample Studios. She graduated from the Michaelis School of Fine Arts at the University of Cape Town, South Africa with a BAFA. The following year she achieved her honours in Curatorial Studies. With printmaking and book arts being her main mediums, she belongs to the printmaking collective “The Printing Girls” and is a member of Cork Printmakers.  She had been part of numerous exhibitions and has artworks in both private and institutional collections. Alongside her artistic practice, she has worked within various creative industries such as galleries, bookstores, printmaking studios, binderies and framing studios. At the end of 2022 she was one of the coordinators of Cork Zine Fest 2022 and in 2023 has begun working as an art workshop facilitator as part of Sample Studios Education & Outreach Programmes. De Beer is currently working towards her first solo exhibition at the Library Headquarters Gallery at the Cork County Library opening in January 2024 and at the Queens Street Studios + Gallery in Belfast opening in February 2024.

Alongside my artistic practice, I am also a collaborative bookbinder and owner of Bookward Bound Bindery. I work with various creatives, authors and artists to create one-off and short-run publications using traditional bookbinding techniques within a contemporary framework.

As a way to add a new perspective to the creative discourse within South Africa and the contemporary creative world, myself and co-host Amé Bell, founded the Chopped Liver Appreciation Society and the Chopped Liver Podcast. A platform supporting creatives and innovators following unconventional career paths in various creative industries. 

Artist Statement

Elize de Beer is an artist based in Ireland, currently working from her studio in Sample Studios, Cork. Since the start of her artistic practice and during the development of her visual language, de Beer has strongly been influenced by her dyslexia, whereby written language is read as images and layered shapes. In her artwork, she has explored her dyslexic experience of “reading” to better understand the disorder and for audiences to get a glimpse into her nuanced way of seeing the world.

As her practice developed, her dyslexia began to inform her methodology for creating abstract artworks. Through the use of printmaking, ink drawings, collages and artist books de Beer has intuitively experimented with the use of letters as images, layers of tones, textures and fields of colour. All with the intention of creating artworks that visually play with the readability of language, along with the intuitive joy and freedom to which abstraction lends itself.

It is through trying to understand her relationship with written language that the objectivity of books and their history became a focal point in her practice. With her background as a bookbinder and printmaker, de Beer creates non-narrative artist books that merge her fascination with bookbinding traditions, printmaking and written language.

In her current body of work de Beer is exploring the aesthetics and concepts around libraries and archives. Conceptually examining her desire to continuously consume knowledge as a form of self-protection to alleviate anxieties. In her work, she is particularly examining her own library collection acting as a pseudo-librarian. Through this body of work nature, she is always trying to bridge the gap between visual art and the craft of bookbinding. One method is using bookbinding waste material in the art-making process.  These waste elements are then translated through the mediums of artist books, pop-up books and printmaking; mainly etchings, collagraphs and letterpress. Within her art-making process, she aims to use these materials and other visual signifiers of bookmaking to investigate the physicality of a book and the knowledge they hold.

Artist CV

EXHIBITIONS

Group Exhibitions

  • What’s The Word? 2023. David Krut Projects. Johannesburg, South Africa
  • Cork Printmakers Members Show. 2023. Lavit Gallery. Cork City, Ireland
  • Distro, On Artist Publishing. 2023. Curated by Chloe Maguire. Cavan Arts Festival. Cavan, Ireland.
  • Winter Showcase – Tonnta (Waves). 2022. Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre. Skibbereen, Ireland.
  • The Printing Girls. 2022. Lithographic Academy of Sweden. Tidaholm, Sweden.
  • A Sense of Place. 2022. Latitudes Online and The Printing Girls. Online.
  • Sample-Studios Members Exhibition. 2022. Sample-Studios, The Lord Mayor’s Pavilion. Cork, Ireland
  • Inscape. 2022. Johannn van Heerden Art Gallery. Pretoria. South Africa
  • Summer Open Exhibition. 2022. The Courthouse Gallery & Studios. Ennistymon, Co Clare. Ireland.
  • Papertrail. 2022. Lisamore & Accociaste. Johannesburg. South Africa.
  • Creature Feature. 2021, David Krut Projects, Johannesburg, South Africa.
  • The Printing Girls at SA Print Gallery. 2021. SA Print Gallery. Cape Town, South Africa.
  • The Printing Girls 2021, 2021, The Art Room, Johannesburg, South Africa.
  • Mother Nature in Monotype, 2021, White River Gallery, South Africa
  • Amplifica: A Medley of Moods in Miniature, 2021, KKNK, online exhibition, South Africa.
  • The Troubled Archive, 2021, The Labyrinth Project, Johannesburg, South Africa.
  • Pictures Worth A Thousand Words, 2020, David Krut Projects, Johannesburg, South Africa.
  • Artist Book Exhibition, 2020, The
  • Project Space, Johannesburg, South Africa.
  • Authentic Marks, 2020, Shaghaf Group, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
  • A Kind of Blue, 2019, David Krut Projects, Johannesburg, South Africa.
  • The Cat Show, 2018, David Krut Projects, Johannesburg, South Africa.
  • Authentic Marks, 2018, Shaghaf Group, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
  • A Piece of Work, 2017, David Krut Projects, Johannesburg, South Africa.
  • Re(union), 2017, Art.b, Cape Town, South Africa.
  • Bona Fides, 2016, Jan Royce Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

Art Fairs

  • Turbine Art Fair, 2023, David Krut Projects, Johannesburg, South Africa
  • Halftone Print Fair. 2022. The Library Project. Dublin, Ireland
  • Turbine Art Fair, 2021, Unearthed Project, Johannesburg, South Africa.
  • Turbine Art Fair, 2019, David Krut Projects, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Collections

  • University of Cape Town Permanent Collection, Cape Town, South Africa.
  • Shaghai Group Permanent Collection, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
  • The Project Space Collection, Johannesburg, South Africa.
  • The Printing Girls. South Africa

EDUCATION

Studies

  • BA in Fine Arts – Majoring in Printmaking and Art Theory. Graduated in 2015 from the University of Cape Town, Michaelis School of Fine Arts.
  • BA Honours – Curatorship Specialization Graduated in 2016 from the University of Cape Town, Michaelis School of Fine Arts.

Internships

  • Brenthurt Library. 2019 and 2021.
  • DK Conservators. 2018.
  • David Krut Projects. 2014.
  • Warren Editions. 2015.

COLLECTIVES AND ORGANISATIONS

  • The Printing Girls since 2020
  • Cork Printmakers since 2022
  • Sample Studios since 2022
  • Press. On since 2023

Podcast

The Chopped Liver Podcast

WORK EXPERIENCE

  • Framer
  • Printmaking Facilitator 
  • Curator and Gallerist
  • Arts Facilitator
  • Bookbinder and Book Restore

EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES

  • Sample Studios Educational Program, Creative Careers,  2023.Workshop Facilitator
  • Test Site, 2022. Workshop Facilitator
  • Cork Zine Fest, 2022. Coordinator
  • STAMP Festival, 2022 and 2023. Workshop Facilitator