Elize de Beer
Elize de Beer (b. 1993) is a South African artist based in Cork, Ireland. Her expanded print practice examines how archives influence personal narratives and global issues like climate change, immigration, and knowledge preservation. Using both photographic and written materials, she creates alternative stories through analogue and digital methods, questioning how histories are recorded and interpreted. Her work critically explores the structures of archives, publishing, and libraries, focusing on how knowledge is organized and accessed.
Elize de Beer (b. 1993) is a South African artist currently based in Cork, Ireland, working from her studio at Sample-Studios. In 2015 She graduated from the Michaelis School of Fine Arts at the University of Cape Town, South Africa with a BAFA. The following year she obtained her honours in Curatorial Studies. With printmaking and book arts being her main mediums, she belongs to the printmaking collective "The Printing Girls”, “Press On” and is a member of Cork Printmakers. She has been part of numerous exhibitions and has artworks in both private and institutional collections. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally, including recent 2024 solo shows: The Books We Haven’t Read, LHQ Gallery, Cork County Library; Orthography In Disregard, QSS Gallery, Belfast, UK; Archived Waterford, Index Gallery, Waterford; and Antarctic Archive, in the Printmakers Studio Gallery, Cork, IE. She is currently working towards a solo exhibition at Sample-Studios Gallery, The Lord Majors Pavilion, Cork City, IE in March 2026. She has artworks in both private and institutional collections, including the OPW, Ireland and the University of Cape Town. Alongside her artistic practice, de Beer is an arts facilitator and has co- organised Cork Zine Fest since 2022. She graduated from the Michaelis School of Fine Arts at the University of Cape Town, South Africa with a BAFA and an honours in Curatorial Studies. Her practice has been supported with awards from The Arts Council of Ireland, Creative Ireland, and Cork County Council.
In de Beer’s expanded print practice, she explores and critically engages with archival materials to examine not only the act of archiving but also how archives shape personal narratives and address broader global concerns such as climate change, immigration, land, and the preservation of knowledge. Working with both photographic and written archival sources, de Beer uses these materials to construct new or alternative narratives, drawing on analogue and digital processes to question how histories are recorded, mediated, and re-imagined.
Through these material and visual investigations, her work challenges the hierarchies and systems embedded within archives, publishing, and library structures, particularly in relation to how knowledge is organized, accessed, and valued. She implements a wide range of printmaking techniques, including acid etchings, photoetching, and screen printing to create editioned prints. She applies those printmaking sensibilities to create sculptural forms in metal and paper, installations, and artist books. Books play a central role in de Beer’s practice. By interrogating their form, materiality, and function she creates traditional publications, zines, artist books, and large-scale immersive book-based sculptures. Across these varied formats, she considers the book as both an object and a site where knowledge can be questioned and restructured.
