Born in Co.Wicklow Ireland and lives and works in Northern Ireland.

Selected Creative Practice and Research

Dr. Chérie Driver is the Associate Head of the Belfast School of Art, Ulster University, specializing in art theory and the intersections of art with its cultural contexts. With a background in both painting and social anthropology, Dr. Driver’s research often addresses art in contested spaces and explores the theoretical aspects of materiality and subjectivity within art. She wrote the essay ‘Penumbra: Painting Materialising in the Almost-Shadow’ for the F. E. McWilliam Gallery and Studio exhibition Penumbra, (2020) curated by Dr Louise Wallace and Dr Riann Coulter. The exhibition Penumbra can be understood in relational distance to a matrix of exhibitions of works by contemporary female artists from across the island of Ireland. These exhibitions and the essay that accompanied it, had sought to address the invisibility of such work. Her career has also involved significant engagement with contemporary art documentation and archiving, including her notable contributions to preserving Northern Ireland's visual art heritage. She curated the exhibition Catalyst Arts: Collective Histories of Northern Irish Art X, which was one part of a larger series of exhibitions at the Golden Thread Gallery that archives art movements in Northern Ireland from 1945 onward. Additionally, Dr. Driver co-authored Actional Poetics – ASH SHE HE: The Performance Actuations of Alastair MacLennan, 1971-2020, furthering her influence on the discourse around performance and visual representation in Northern Irish art​.

Dr. Chérie Driver’s work as an artist and theorist navigates the complexities and boundaries of the visual representation of the female form, materiality, and the cultural dimensions of art through a depth psychology practice based research process with a critical and reflective lens. Currently she is undertaking a Masters in Art, Psyche and the Creative Imagination at Limerick School of Art and Design.