EDUCATION
M.V.S., University of Toronto, 2008
B.Ed., York University, Toronto, 2004
H.B.A., Art History and Studio, University of Toronto, 2003
AWARDS AND GRANTS
2019 Ontario Arts Council, Visual Artist Creation Project Grant
Toronto Arts Council, Visual Artist Grant
2018 Ontario Arts Council, Exhibition Assistance Grant
2017 Sobey Art Award, Long List
2016 John Hartman Award, MacLaren Art Centre
Toronto Arts Council, Visual Artists Grant
Toronto Friends of Visual Arts, Award Finalist
Ontario Arts Council, Exhibition Assistance Grant
2015 Canada Council for the Arts, Visual Arts Travel Grant
Ontario Arts Council, Emerging Artist Grant
2014 Ontario Arts Council, Exhibition Assistance Grant
2013 Canada Council for the Arts, Visual Arts Travel Grant
Ontario Arts Council, Exhibition Assistance Grant
2010 Ontario Arts Council, Exhibition Assistance Grant
2008 Ontario Arts Council, Exhibition Assistance Grant
Canada Council for the Arts, Visual Arts Travel Grant
2006 Fellowship, University of Toronto
Canada Council for the Arts, Inter-Arts Travel Grant
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021 to meet, or meet again, Christie Contemporary, Toronto, ON.
Erika DeFreitas: close magic, Evergreen Art Gallery, Coquitlam, BC.
2020 everything she inspires remains, belongs to light, MacLaren Art Centre, Barrie, ON.
an object, a gesture, a scene. (II), Visual Arts Centre of Clarington, Bowmanville, ON.
2019 an object, a gesture, a scene., Open Studio, Toronto, ON.
It is now here that I have gathered and measured yes. Gallery TPW, Toronto, ON.
2018 Almost, always, at once. Angell Gallery, Toronto, ON.
like a conjuring, Platform Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts, Winnipeg, MB.
to prepare for a longing, an itch, Y+ Contemporary, Scarborough, ON.
2017 Impossible Gardens, Angell Gallery, Toronto, ON.
like a conjuring (bringing water back to Bradley), The Anchorage Bradley Museums, Mississauga, ON.
2016 ; it was in the air, as they say., Gallery 44, Toronto, ON. (Vitrines)
2015 The Work of Mourning, Art Gallery of Mississauga, Mississauga, ON.
2013 Deaths/Memorials/Births, Centre[3] for Print and Media Arts, Hamilton, ON.
2009 In The Bedroom Series, Gallery 44, Toronto, ON. (Vitrines)
2008 Deaths/Memorials/Births, Platform Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts, Winnipeg, MB.
2005 The Snapshot Chronicles, CWSE, OISE/University of Toronto, Toronto, ON.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022 Cultiver l’humilité | M8jagen piwihozw8gan, ORANGE 2022, L’événement d’art actuel de Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec.
To meet the curve of movement with the rhythm of legibility, PAVED Arts, Saskatoon, SK.
I'll Be Your Mirror, The Thames Art Gallery, Chatham, ON.
Mystic Toolkit at Artpace, San Antonio, TX.
Beyond the Stone Angel, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, SK.
2021 S.P.A.N.E. 2021: Air, RPL Film Theatre presents on VUCAVU, curated by Johannes Zits
Papier Contemporary Art Fair, Booth A01, Grand Quai, Montreal, Qc.
Awaken Your Senses, Scarborough Museum in Thomson Memorial Park, Scarborough, ON.
In Keeping With Myself (Fidèle à moi-même), Portrait gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON.
Of Several Depths, The Plumb, Toronto, ON.
KnowingDoing, The Bows, Calgary, AB.
2020 RESOLUTION: A Century of Photographic Art, Museum London, ON.
The Essentials (projection location: Canada Malting Co.), presented by The Bentway as part of BigArtTO, Toronto, ON.
Boiling Point: How it Feels, Projet Pangée, Montreal, QC.
Spirits, Satellite Project Space, London, ON.
Arrangements, Art Gallery at Evergreen, Coquitlam, BC.
tofeelclose, AKA Artist-Run, Saskatoon, SK. www.tofeelclose.com
How dark does it get when the lights go out?, Angell Gallery, Toronto, ON.
2019 Thicker Than Water, Grimsby Public Art Gallery, Grimsby, ON.
Undomesticated, Koffler Gallery, Toronto, ON.
Undercurrents, The Bentway, Toronto, ON.
Body of Waters, Ideas Exchange, Queen's Square, Cambridge, ON.
Common Place: Common-Place, University of Toronto Art Centre, Toronto, ON.
Over My Black Body, La Galerie de l'UQAM, Montreal, Qc.
Disputed Bodies, Trinity Square Video, Toronto, ON.
2018 I'll be your Mirror, Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, ON.
Message in a Bottle, Zalucky Contemporary, Toronto, ON.
seeping upwards, rupturing the surface, Art Gallery of Mississauga, Mississauga, ON.
at; into; across, Grafly Gallery at the Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, KS.
Black Borders: Arts of Color, Reframing Culture, Fort Worth Contemporary Arts, TX.
2017 The Sustenance Rite, Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto, Mississauga, ON.
Migrating the Margins, Art Gallery of York University, Toronto, ON.
take your legs and your shoes, The Drake Hotel, Toronto, ON.
Generators, Critical Distance Centre for Curators, Toronto, ON.
The Inhabitants of Space in General, Open Studio, Toronto, ON.
All That is Left Unsaid/at the very point where words fail us, Centre[3] for Print and Media Arts, Hamilton, ON.
Position As Desired: Exploring African Canadian Identity, Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, ON.
2016 Enraged, Inertia ran off, Parkette at James and Wilson, Hamilton, ON.
Unfixed Homeland., Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, NJ.
At the Seams, Grimsby Public Art Gallery, Grimsby, ON.
A Rehearsal for Objects Lie on a Table, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, Toronto, ON.
Black Future Toronto 2116, Daniels Spectrum, Toronto, ON.
Art Souterrain 2016, Palais des Congres, Montreal, QC.
2015 Ontario in Âjagemô, Canada Council for the Arts, Ottawa, ON.
HOTBED, Art Gallery of Ontario Massive Party, Toronto, ON.
The One and the Many: A Self-portrait in Seven Parts, Project Row Houses, Houston, TX.
2014 Stranger Than Fiction, Pollock Gallery at the Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX.
WE WON’T COMPETE, Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, ON.
Face Value, Gallery 1313, Toronto, ON.
2013 The boat is a floating piece of space, Houston Museum of African American Culture, Houston, TX.
2012 unseen SEEN, Studio 42, Toronto, ON.
New Faces: Portraits from the Collection of the Canada Council Art Bank, Jardins de Metis - Reford Gardens,
Estevan, QC.
2011 This Woman’s Work…, Project Space, Hamilton, ON.
Eccentricities, Papermill Gallery, Toronto, ON.
Here and There, Propeller Centre for Visual Arts, Toronto, ON.
2010 Feminist Research Performance Project (in collaboration with Leena Raudvee), XPACE, Toronto, ON.
Do You See What I Mean? Voyez-vous ce que je veux dire? Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa, ON.
The Trans-Cultural: Women in Performance, CWSE, OISE/University of Toronto.
Around the Frayed Edges, Agnes Jamieson Gallery, Minden, ON.
2009 DIASPORArt: Strategy and Seduction by Canadian Artists from Culturally Diverse Communities in works from
the collection of the Canada
Council Art Bank, Rideau Hall, Ottawa, ON.
2008 MVS Graduating Exhibition, The University of Toronto Art Centre, Toronto, ON.
Toronto Alternative Arts & Fashion Week, The Distillery District, Toronto, ON.
2007 Fleeting Face, A Space Gallery, Toronto, ON.
Rehab: Weaning Youth off Corporate Crack, The Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, ON.
2006 Alumni Show, The Gallery, The University of Toronto, Toronto, ON.
Art in the Halls, 401 Richmond, Toronto, ON.
Collision 2006 Inter-arts Research and Practices, University of Victoria, B.C.
Get on the Bus, CITY – SPACE, San Francisco, CA.
2004 Sticks and Stones, sisboombah, Toronto, ON. (Vitrine)
7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art, Toronto, ON.
LISTEN!: FIVE HOLES series, FADO, Toronto, ON.
Squarefoot 2004, A.W.O.L Gallery, Toronto, ON.
2003 Touch and Go, The Third Floor, Brooklyn, NY.
Body: Not My Autobiography, The Gallery, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON.
Gestures, Implant, Toronto, ON.
Beautificades, Ne Plus Ultra, Toronto, ON.
2002 hardFORM, Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts, Toronto, ON.
Grapefruit, Lemon, ___________. Art System, Toronto, ON.
SCREENINGS/PERFORMANCES*
2021 -And- a 12-hour online event organized by Christof Migone
The Curatorial Incubator, v.17: On the Other Side - It's Heaven, Program 3 Embodied Intimacies: Gesturing Towards Understanding
A Gesture, a Reading: Finding Touch in Occult Practices and Performance Art, Minor Hockey Curatorial with the Witch Institute, Toronto, ON.
2020 Curatorial Incubator v. 16: Slow Unfurling, VTape, Toronto, ON.
2019 All I ever wanted to be was a Supreme, YYZ Artists' Outlet, Toronto, ON.*
Studio Sessions: Erika DeFreitas and Francisco-Fernando Granados, Trinity Square Video, Toronto, ON.*
2018 nothing ever so straight., 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art, The Theatre Centre, Toronto, ON.*
2017 7a*md8 – On Screen, Toronto, ON.
Images Festival, Toronto, ON.
and this seems to say everything, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON. *
2016 My tongue was tied, Xpace Gallery, Toronto, ON.*
PUBLICATIONS
C Magazine Issue 144 “Déjà Vu” Winter 2020, Artist Project with an accompanying text by Emily McKibbon.
Artist Book, very strongly may be sincerely fainting, Published by the Art Gallery of York University, 2017.
Prefix Photo Magazine Issue 18, Artist Portfolio: The Impossible Speech Act, 2008.
Extensions: The Online Journal of Embodiment and Technology, Artist Project: Deaths/Memorials/Births, UCLA, 2008.
AUCTIONS/FUNDRAISERS
2021 AKA Artist Run, Art Draw, Saskatoon, ON.
2020 Thirty Works, Koffler Centre of the Arts, Toronto, ON.
Art Bank TO, Toronto, ON.
Salon 44, Gallery 44, Toronto, ON.
2019 Off The Hook: Silent Art Auction, MacLaren Art Centre, Barrie, ON.
Gallery TPW Silver Editions, Toronto, ON.
C Magazine Contemporary Art Auction, Toronto, ON.
2018 – 2019 ArtsEffect for VIBE Arts, Toronto, ON.
2017 SNAP! Auction, Aids Committee of Toronto, Toronto, ON.
2016 – 2017 Salon 44, Gallery 44, Toronto, ON
2013 Canadian Art Foundation Art Auction, Toronto, ON.
2012 – 2016 Over the Top, Mentoring Artist for Women’s Art (MAWA), Winnipeg, MB.
2010 – 2016 8x10 Fundraiser, Platform Centre for Photographic +Digital Arts, Winnipeg, MB.
2009 – 2018 Photorama, Gallery TPW, Toronto, ON.
RESIDENCIES
2019 Visiting Artist Residency, Open Studio, Toronto, ON.
2018 Hospitalfield, Arbroath, Scotland.
Y+ Contemporary, Scarborough, ON.
2017 Alice Yard, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
2015 Also As Well Too, Winnipeg, MB.
2010 Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art (MAWA), Winnipeg, MB.
GUEST LECTURE / PANEL
2022 Tim Whiten in conversation with Erika DeFreitas, McMaster Museum and Robert McLaughlin Gallery, ON.
There Are Fragments. Artist-led workshop co-presented with CMagazine and the Toronto Biennial of Art, ON.
2021 Guest Speaker with Jennifer Fischer, The Dawn of Aquarius: Art, Intuition and Technology, -empyre- hosted by Cornell University.
Artist Talk, Advanced Painting Class, Alberta University of the Arts, Calgary, AB.
Artist Talk, Creative Space with the Scarborough Centre for Healthy Communities, Toronto, ON.
Q and A with Erika DeFreitas and Daisy Desrosiers, MacLaren Art Centre, Barrie, ON.
Guest Speaker, Artist File Fair, EMILIA-AMALIA with the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON.
2020 Panel Member, Liminal Spaces: Migration and Women of the Guyanese Diaspora, Women and Gender Studies Institute and Caribbean Studies,
University of Toronto and the Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, York University, Toronto, ON.
Panel Member, Liminal Spaces: Migration and Women of the Guyanese Diaspora, OPB Publishers, Cambridge, UK.
Artist Talk, Introduction to Performance Art course at Concordia University, Montreal, Qc.
Artist Talk, Concepts and Theories course at the School of Image Arts, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON.
Artist Talk, All seen All seen, Gallery 44, Toronto, ON.
Artist Talk, Collecting Contemporary Art course at OCAD University, Toronto, ON.
Artist Talk, ArtNow! Public Speaker Series, University of Western, London, ON.
2019 Panel Member, Undomesticated, Koffler Centre of the Arts, Toronto, ON.
Panel Member, Student Night, Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, ON.
Artist Talk, Concepts and Theories course at the School of Image Arts, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON.
Panel Member, Over My Black Body, La Galerie de l'UQAM, Montreal, Qc.
2018 Artist Talk, Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, ON.
Scarborough Contemporary Artists speak. Erika DeFreitas, Anique Jordan and Rajni Perera. Moderated by Yaniya Lee. Scarborough, ON.
Artist Talk, Collecting Contemporary Art course at OCAD University, Toronto, ON.
Artist Talk, Professional Practice course at OCAD, Toronto, ON.
Erika DeFreitas in conversation with Francisco-Fernando Granados, Ricky Varghese, and Fan Wu, Y+ Contemporary, Scarborough, ON.
Artist Talk, Platform Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts, Winnipeg, MB.
Artist Talk, Converge Student Lecture Series at Ryerson University School of Image Arts, Toronto, ON.
Artist Talk, Doris McCarthy Gallery/Studio Visiting Artist Lecture Series, Toronto, ON.
Panel Member, Boundless Questions: Artists in Conversation, Koffler Gallery, Toronto, ON.
2017 Guest Speaker, Building Your Career, CARFAC, Toronto, ON.
Guest Speaker, Learning from Traumatic Histories: Curation and Controversies course at York University, Toronto, ON.
Artist Talk, Collecting Contemporary Art course at OCAD University, Toronto, ON.
Artist Talk, Alice Yard, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
Artist Talk, Impossible Gardens, Angell Gallery, Toronto, ON.
Panel Member, A Discussion About Generators with curator Anthony Stepter and CDCC Director Shani
Parsons, Studio 101, Artscape Youngplace, Toronto, ON.
Artist Talk, Caribbean Cultural Traditions course at Ryerson University, Toronto, ON.
Workshop, Family Matters: Incorporating the Personal Into Your Art Practice, Gallery 44, Toronto, ON.
2016 Sunday Scene (discussing Franz Erhard Walther’s exhibition Call to Action), The Power Plant, Toronto, ON.
Artist Talk, These Funny Things, Grimsby Public Art Gallery, Grimsby, ON.
2015 Artist Talk, Salon Night with Erika DeFreitas, Platform Centre for Photographic+Digital Arts, Winnipeg, MB.
Artist Talk, Art Gallery of Mississauga, Mississauga, ON.
2014 Artist Talk, Pollock Gallery at the Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX.
Artist Talk, Plug In ICA Summer Institute, Winnipeg, MB.
Panel Member, The State of Blackness: From Production to Presentation, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, ON.
2010 Artist Talk, MAWA, Winnipeg, MB.
2009 Artist Talk, Gallery 44, Toronto, ON.
2008 Panel Member, The New Art of Suburbia at Centennial College, Toronto, ON.
Artist Talk, Platform Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts, Winnipeg, MB.
2006 Artist Talk, A Space Gallery, Toronto, ON.
JURIES/ADVISORY/PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
2021 Mentor, Arts Mentorship Program with the York Region Arts Council, Newmarket, ON.
2019 Jury Member, Annual Juried Student Art Show, University of Toronto Scarborough Campus, Toronto, ON.
Artist Mentor, Also As Well Too, Winnipeg, MB.
2018 Artist-Teacher, Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Board Member, VTape, Toronto, ON.
Jury Member, Toronto Arts Council: Animating Toronto Parks, Toronto, ON.
2017 Jury Member, Ontario Arts Council Visual Artist Projects, Toronto, ON.
Board Member, Art Metropole, Toronto, ON
Jury Member, SNAP! Auction, Aids Committee of Toronto, Toronto, ON.
2012 Jury Member, Ontario Arts Council Visual Artist: Emerging, Toronto, ON.
2007 Jury Member, Masters of Visual Studies Selection Committee, University of Toronto, ON.
2006 Jury Member, A Space Gallery, Toronto, ON.
REVIEWS/ESSAYS/INTERVIEWS
DeFreitas, Erika and Tarin Dehod. "I See You Too ( a discussion between Erika DeFreitas and Tarin Dehod). BlackFlash Magazine, Issue 38.1, 2021.
O'Brien Davis, Lillian. "Witch Weather," Peripheral Review, August 27, 2020.
Varghese, Ricky and Francisco-Fernando Granados. “Mourning and Mediation: On Erika DeFreitas’s A Visual Vocabulary for Hands in Mourning.” Other Places: Reflections on Media Arts in Canada, edited by Deanna Bowen, Toronto, Media Arts Network of Ontario, 2019, pp. 233-251.
Wallen, Genevieve. “Exploring Video/Performance as a Healing Site.” Other Places: Reflections on Media Arts in Canada, edited by Deanna Bowen, Toronto, Media Arts Network of Ontario, 2019, pp. 52-61.
Klover, Anna. "Into Another Skin: Women and Self Portraiture," Border Crossings, December 2019.
Fisher, Jennifer. “Glowing Objects and the Psychometric Interstice: An Interview with Erika DeFreitas,” Gallery TPW, Exhibition Catalogue, 2019.
Frappier, Valerie. "Erika DeFreitas's Mourning Gestures," Canadian Art, June 13, 2018.
Abramson, Stacey. "Like A Conjuring," Galleries West, April 24, 2018.
Shore, Amanda. "A national survey of 10 artists whose works reinvent history," Canadian Art, Fall 2017: The Idea of History, 2017.
Sandals, Leah. "Ending Nostalgia at the Heritage Museum," Canadian Art, August 30, 2017.
Bronstein, Noa. "Erika DeFreitas, like a conjuring (bringing water back to Bradley)," esse arts+opinions, July 2017.
Julius, Kenesha. “Conceptualism Through Motion and Space: Erika DeFreitas in Conversation with Kenesha Julius,” Moko Magazine: Caribbean Arts and Letters, Issue No. 11, May 7, 2017.
Ali, Grace Aneiza. “Un/Fixed Homeland.” Transition: The Magazine of Africa and the Diaspora. 2016, pp. 135 - 145.
Mowry, Crystal. “Rest/Repeat: An Interview with Erika DeFreitas,” No More Potlucks, Issue No. 45: Repetition, September 1, 2016.
Pluecker, John. “The One and the Many: A Self-Portrait in Seven Parts.” ARTFORUM, May 2015.
Neudorf, Kim. “We Won’t Compete at the Art Gallery of Windsor.” Akimblog, August 12, 2014.
Dick, Terence. “Face Value at Gallery 1313 I Jason Wright at GalleryWest.” Akimblog, February 25, 2014.
Matthews, Nolan. “The Art of Erika DeFreitas.” The Silhouette. May 21, 2013.
Vegh, Stephanie. “Erika DeFreitas at Centre 3.” Akimblog, March 19, 3013.
Davidge, Michael. “Message Pictures: Adventures in Reading Images Part 3.” BlackFlash Magazine, Issue 29.2, Winter 2012.
Cittern, Zoe. “A Different Spin on Textiles.” Country Voice, Volume 3 Issue 9: Thursday, March 25, 2010, p.26.
Carraway, Kate. “The art of Scarborough.” Eye Weekly, December 12, 2008.
Eyland, Cliff. Akimblog: Winnipeg, December 2, 2008.
Thiessen, Brittany. “The significance of a blank page: Toronto artist uses obituaries as her canvas for exhibit.”
The Uniter: The University of Winnipeg Student Weekly, Issue 14: November 27, 2008.
Eigenkind, Heidi. “Deaths/Memorials/Births.” Winnipeg: Platform Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts 2008.
Landry, Mike. “Deaths/Memorials/Births.” Things of Desire: Canada’s Alternative Art Weekly, Volume 1 Number 11: October 30-November 5.
Reckitt, Helena. (Catalogue Essay). MVS Programme 2008 Graduating Exhibition. Toronto: The University of Toronto 2008.
Goddard, Peter. “At the Galleries: Closing Today.” The Toronto Star, July 21, 2007, Sec. E6.
Schecter, Fran. “Ethnicity’s Fleeting Face.” NOW Magazine, July 12-18, 2007, p. 81.
Nicholls, Sophie. “Battling against in-school discrimination.” 24 Hours, December 4, 2005, p. 6.
Whyte, Murray. “ Random acts of weirdness.” The Toronto Star, March 26, 2005, Sec. H, p. 1 and 12.
COLLECTIONS
Museum London, ON.
Deloitte, Vancouver, BC.
TELUS, Calgary, AB.
Scotiabank Fine Art Program, Toronto, ON.
RBC Art Collection, Toronto, ON.
Capital One, Toronto, ON.
Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre, Barrie, ON.
Wedge Curatorial Projects, Toronto, ON.
Hart House Permanent Collection, Toronto, ON.
Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa, ON.
TD Canada Trust Art Collection, Toronto, ON.
DISTRIBUTION
VTape, Toronto, ON.
