Residencies & cross-border projects

Residency & programmes

Through Ponte d’Arte — the riverside artists’ residency she co-directs in Portugal — de Villiers hosts and partners international art programmes, bringing more than three decades of experience in participatory art to cross-border collaborations.

Ponte d’Arte — artists’ residency, Portugal, 2015–presentForgotten Lands — Erasmus+, 2023–presentIn Public in Particular — Creative Europe, 2015–2018

Art educator, lecturer & researcher

Education & research

De Villiers has lectured in drawing, painting, sculpture, conceptual art and art theory — from foundation to postgraduate level — at the University of South Africa, the Design School of South Africa and the University of Pretoria, and as a guest lecturer at the Royal Academy of Art, Antwerp. She continues to mentor Master’s and PhD candidates, and invites artists to apply for residencies at Ponte d’Arte.

Teaching, research and making are, for her, one continuous practice: several bodies of work began as sustained research projects, each gathering its own drawings, objects and writing. Regeneration traces her early research into traditional healing and the fetish object; LiveWire grew from her Master’s research into the body, masquerade and the neo-Baroque; and The Fire and After gathers the ecological work — mycelium, lichen and roots — made in and after the 2017 wildfire.

Celia with visiting students at Ponte d’Arte, 2019.Regeneration — healing, ritual & the fetish object, 1990s–2008LiveWire — the body, masquerade & the neo-Baroque, 2006The Fire and After — ecology, regeneration & the 2017 wildfire, 2017–present

Academic record & profile → · Research papers & publications →

Community & social practice

Community

Over seventeen years de Villiers founded and ran large embroidery and craft projects — most enduringly the Intuthuko collective near Johannesburg — teaching design, embroidery and enterprise, and winning national awards for job creation in the arts. The collective’s hand-stitched works have shown internationally, including the Contextile Biennale, Portugal.

The WasteArt Foundation — arts action against pollutionIntuthuko Embroidery Collective — Etwatwa, 2001–presentJourney to Freedom — Intuthuko embroidered narratives, 2004Synchronic Journey — with the Intuthuko Embroiderers, 2011–12Shadowbind — Ubuntutu tribute to Desmond Tutu, 2016Struggle in Peace — Nieu-Bethesda embroidery groupMadiba & Ubuntu — Intuthuko panels, Contextile 2020

Curator & adjudicator

Curation

Celia de Villiers curates and adjudicates exhibitions in South Africa and abroad, with a particular eye for fibre, craft and contemporary sculpture.

Selected curated exhibitions

Feito & re-Feito — Made & Remade

2024 · Garagem Exhibition Centre, Ponte da Mucela, Portugal

South African Military Health Services

2013–14 · New Military Health Campus, Pretoria

Curatorial record

• 2024: Feito & re-Feito, Garagem Gallery, Ponte da Mucela, Coimbra, Portugal.
• 2019: Resiliência, Garagem Gallery, Ponte da Mucela, Coimbra, Portugal.
• 2013–14: SA Military Health Services Headquarters, Pretoria.
• 2013: Surreal Synthesis, St Lorient Gallery.
• 2012: Eros & Thanatos, St Lorient Gallery.
• 2010: Essence of Love — recycled perfume bottles, fund-raising exhibition for the Greek Benevolent Fund, St Lorient Gallery.
• 2009: Craft Awards, Department of Arts and Culture.
• 2009: African Mêlée, European Fibre Art Convention, Val d’Argent, France.
• 2006–2010: WasteArt — arts and crafts expo and fashion show promoting recycling. Sponsor: EnviroServ Holdings.
• 2005–2008: Afetos Roubados do Tempo (Stolen Affection) — touring exhibition, Brazil and Spain (co-curator).
• 2007: Treasures from Trash, St Lorient Gallery.
• 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010: WasteArt — seven art and craft exhibitions, guest artists, auctions and fashion shows.
• 2003–2004: Pyramids of Naxos — multicultural collaborative community art action, Johannesburg and Naxos, Greece.
• 2002: Roots and Rhythms Ecology Festival, Plettenberg Bay (resident artist, Arts in Action).