Elsa Bleda

Born in 1988 in Aix-les Bains, France. Lives and works in South Africa.

Elsa Bleda’s main body of work titled Nightscapes captures the South African inner cities after midnight and has been ongoing for close to a decade.

Johannesburg became a strong influence on her work as her bond with the city grew stronger. She has developed an unconventional yet strong visual identity over the years and her night works are so aptly described as post-future gothic, uniquely composed through the use of light as well as its absence, in juxtaposition to her daylight works which are often dreamy and softer with soft color plays and an eerie mood.

In 2016, Elsa started Memories of Dreams, a spiritual journey through the misty mountains and small towns of  Kwazulu-Natal region of South Africa.

Bleda has worked with Apple, Lexus, Red Bull or Adidas to name a few. In 2019, she was the co-creator and the face of New Horizons, the biggest commercial campaign Lexus had created to date and her first immersive exhibition Memories of Dreams opened at TMRW Gallery. In 2020, Bleda started collaborating with a tech company to work on immersive and tech influenced exhibitions, as well as experimental film creations.

She was featured in various publications such as Washington Post, Dazed, Mail & Guardian, The Drum, Wetransfer, Konbini and her work was exhibited at  Paris Photo, 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair Marrakech and New York and more recently at the Dak’ArtOFF2022.