About
Patricia Gerber Dreyfus was born in Dakar in 1951 and grew up in Paris.
She studied drawing and sculpture at the Gregory Masurovsky Studio (American Center) and at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, while producing several artist documentaries shown at institutions such as the Centre Pompidou and the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris.
After moving to Basel in 1992, she devoted herself fully to her artistic practice. Since 2012, she has lived and worked in Berlin, where her work evolves across drawing, sculpture, photography, embroidery and textile-based forms.
Statement
My work develops from an inner necessity rather than from a predefined concept. Drawing, sculpture, and textile are for me ways of thinking through making. I work intuitively, automatically, allowing forms to emerge without prior planning.
For many years, the human head has been at the center of my practice. I have shaped hundreds of small heads, again and again, almost obsessively. This repetitive gesture was not intended as representation, but as a search — for presence, for attachment, for a gaze that seems both intimate and elusive.
What began as an instinctive act gradually became a foundational artistic process. Through repetition, fragmentation, and variation, my work explores identity, memory, and the fragile construction of the self. The figure appears reduced, multiplied, sometimes anonymous, yet always charged with emotional intensity.
Looking back, I understand this long-term practice as an Aufbruch: not a rupture that erases what came before, but a movement forward through making. Art, in this sense, is not a form of illustration or narration, but a space where experience is transformed into form — quietly, persistently, and without resolution.
CV
Producer of documentary films in the field of art, music and economy
Traineeship at the Atelier Gregory Masurovsky, in the American center, Paris and at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris
Traineeship at the Atelier Gregory Masurovsky, in the American center, Paris and at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris
Lives and works in Berlin
Commmutes between Berlin and Basel
Solo exhibitions (selection)
Chacun pour soi - LINIEN 83A, Berlin
To see or not to see - Galerie ArtKlub Bonn
SUSPENDED Magdalenenkapelle, Alter Friedhof, 31303 Burgdorf
L'IMAGINAIRE von Inseln und anderen Phantasmen (curated by Harald F. Theiss) LINIEN 83A, Berlin
3rd Prize 2023 for "Ce que disent les fleurs 1,2,3,4" Kunsthaus Lisa, Germany
KÖPFE UND MASKEN, Kunstverein Wunstorf, Germany
C A C H E (curated by Harald Theiss), L I N I E N 83A, Berlin
WE ARE MULTITUDES, L I N I E N 83A, Berlin
lettre à moi-même 3, Kunstverein Wolfenbüttel
lettre à moi-même #2, Galerie Albrecht, Berlin
lettre à moi-même #1, Galerie Mesmer, Basel - CH
HumanKapital, Häuser und Asche, Kunstverein Ebersberg, DE
Weggefährten, Kunstverein Ottobrunn, DE
Insomnia, Kunsthaus Norden, DE
Insomnia, M54, Basel, CH
Traces/Spuren, Karmeliterkirche, Wiener Neustadt, AT
War Memories Reinvented, QCC Gallery, New York, USA
Switzerland, France and Germany
Group exhibitions (selection)
Mia Fair Milan with Art Projects, Brussels (BBAP)
Fäden schaffen Welten - FrauenMuseum Wiesbaden
NADELWERK, Klosterscheune Zehdenick, Zehdenick, DE
AUSBLICKE, Galerie Albrecht, Berlin
Das kleine Format, Atelierhof-Kreuzberg, Berlin
Kölner Liste , Cologne, DE
Wer bist du?, Museum Schwarzenberg,
Umspann ZENTRALE, Galerie G11, Berlin
Kauf mich, Schwartzsche Villa Galerie, Berlin
Remise en Jeu, Kunsthalle Mulhouse, FR
Regionale, Fabrik culture, Hégenheim, F
Regionale, Kunsthalle, Basel, CH
Art and documentary film
« Aux sources du monde arabe », Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
« La rencontre au sommet », Award for Best Documentary Film, Biarritz Film Festival in France
« L’homme réparé », Centre de la Villette, Paris
« Roberto Matta »
« Les Iles flottantes de Boris Tissot », Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
« Le rêve d’Aurélie »
« La Vie et l’Oeuvre de Shirley Goldfarb », Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris and Musée de Pontoise
Bibliographie
Die imaginäre Insel (Schulz und Schulz)
Insomnia (Benteli)
Obstinate Creation (Linsenmann AG)
Signes de têtes / Headsign (Mendiboure)