Thierry Dreyfus

Thierry Dreyfus, born in 1960, is a French visual artist known for his art installations, lamps, objects, photographs and his role as artistic director/scenographer/producer of fashion shows and events, in Europe, North America and Asia, since 1985.
 
== Early life ==
Thierry Dreyfus was born in 1960, in Boulogne-Billancourt (92), France. and grew up in the Chartres region (28).
At the age of 19, he met a lighting designer from the Opéra National du Rhin, in Strasbourg. He assisted him, then evolved alongside several artistic directors, lighting directors and stage directors in France.
== Career ==
=== Fashion ===
In 1984, designer Patrick Kelly, attended a theatre production directed by Thierry Dreyfus, and then offered him to work on his next fashion show.
Straight after, in 1985, he launched his first event production agency in Paris, focusing on the design and production of fashion show scenography.
Season after season, he developed working collaborations with France Andrévie, Helmut Lang (artist)|Helmut Lang, Martine Sitbon, Ann Demeulemeester, Walter Van Beirendonck (W< collection), Jean Paul Gaultier|Jean-Paul Gaultier and Thierry Mugler. He worked alongside John Galliano for his first fashion shows, Marc Jacobs for his brand (then for Louis Vuitton), Hedi Slimane for Yves Saint Laurent Homme (then for Dior Homme), and Karl Lagerfeld for Fendi. 
In 2001, he became artistic director (and later CEO) of the production company Eyesight Group (Eyesight Paris and Eyesight Fashion & Luxury New York City|NYC). In this respect, he imagines and designs the concepts, sets, plans and lighting for the shows of up-and-coming talents (for example at the International Fashion and Photography Festival of Hyeres, in France) or of established designers, and other various fashion events.
In 2002, Pierre Bergé gave him “carte blanche” to direct and conceive the fashion show for the 40th anniversary of the Maison Yves Saint Laurent, at the Pompidou Centre, Paris (January 22nd), with a collection of 380 looks for a duration of more or less 90 minutes. Secretly, he invites Catherine Deneuve and Laetitia Casta to sing and pay their homage to Monsieur Saint Laurent during the finale which will be his last fashion show.
To date, he has more than 3,000 fashion shows to his credit. As described by several journalists, he is always on the lookout for new ideas, the specificity of each brand and designer, and sharing an emotion. He conceives fashion shows more and more as happenings, temporary artistic pieces, for Kris Van Assche, Raf Simons, Jil Sander, Victoria Beckham, Dsquared, Palm Angels, Acne Studios, Elsa Schiaparelli, Comme des Garçons, Azzedine Alaïa, Kith or Off-White.
Since 2013, he is part of the #BoF500 (the "bible" of the 500 personalities who shape and influence the global fashion industry, established by the editors of The Business of Fashion and fuelled by social media), as a testament to his contribution to the world of fashion.
=== Art installations ===
In 2000, he was commissioned to create his first perennial art light installation for the Caisse des dépôts et consignations|Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations in Paris, and a temporary work for the Biennale d'Art Contemporain de Lyon.
In 2005, he was the winner of the international bidding from the French Ministry of Culture and Communication for the reopening of the Grand Palais in Paris. He produced an art installation composed of light and mirrors, entitled "Ondes Visibles", set to music by Frédéric Sanchez, which welcomed 500,000 visitors. 
He then created various light installations for the "Nuit Blanche" in Paris, with a “Jacob's ladder” at the National French Library in Paris – set to music by Henri Scars Struck and Placebo (2006), at the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris (artistic director : Martin Bethenod), in 2010, and for "Versailles Off", in the park of Palace of Versailles|Château de Versailles (curator: Laurent Le Bon) : (at Bassin du Dragon) in 2006 and (in labyrinths) in 2007, in London at the Louise Blouin Foundation (suspension) in 2009, for the Carpenters Workshop Gallery (which represents him at Design Miami / Art Basel, at the Villa Noailles, France (beam of light pointing towards the North Star), or at the Borusan Foundation in Istanbul (permanent outdoor video installation) in 2013.
In 2014, for the "Nuit de Chine" event, former French Minister of Culture, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, entrusted him alongside architect Patrick Bouchain and Chen Weyia (co-designer of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games opening ceremony) to artistic direct this night celebrating the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and France, at the Grand Palais, Paris. They brought on board Bartabas, who inaugurated the Year of Horse with a unique show dedicated to the first Emperor of China
In 2015, he collaborates with choreographers Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar (L-E-V Dance Company) for the light set and dramaturgy of two new ballets : "Bedroom Folk" at the Nederlands Dans Theater in The Hague and "OCD Love" at the Banff Center for Arts and Creativity (Canada).
For the Comme des Garçons retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (2017), designer Rei Kuwakubo asked him to create an installation that he composed of 340 fluorescent tubes.
=== Design ===
From 2006, while working on his art installations, he participated in new projects more oriented towards design.
For interior spaces, he designed the luminous atmosphere of the Silencio Club in Paris, designed by director David Lynch (2011), a permanent light installation on the façade of the Metropol Palace, an emblematic hotel in Belgrade (2011), the interior layout and custom-made lamps for Robert Clergerie's Pop-up boutique in Paris (2012), or for the Versace boutique, in Paris (architect : Jamie Fobert) (2013), a perennial lighting installation for NeueHouse in New-York (2013), an installation of mirrors and video in the entrance of the W Hotel in Istanbul (architect: Mahmut Anlar) (2014), perennial light art installations for the Dover Street Market concept stores in London and Singapore of Comme des Garçons (2016 & 2017).
He also worked on the exterior of buildings, notably on the facades of the Le Méridien Starwood hotels in San Francisco and Shanghai (2006) and on the Chetrit Building in New-York (2014 & 2016).
For a long time, he has been collaborating with architect Peter Marino on an installation at the "Le Cheval Blanc" hotel (within the La Samaritaine building) in Paris, which will open soon.
=== "Elements of Light" and furniture ===
In 2003, he launched a limited edition collection of lamps called "Elements of Light ", of which the first piece was exhibited at the Colette Paris concept store. This was followed by regular creations (including furniture) in wood, marble, ceramic and concrete (or more unusual materials such as salt). Some are exhibited at the Ateliers Courbet in New York, at the Design Miami Basel, at Euroluce at the Salone del MobileEUROLUCE 2011 - delight.dn.ua › uploads › file, at the Wallpaper* Handmade in Milan, or at collectors' homes.
He collaborates with publishers such as Flos, Yota Design, Koleksiyon, or more recently with Nymphenburg.
His wall lamp "Rupture", presented at Euroluce in 2011 on the Flos stand, won an FX International Interior Design Award.
=== Photography ===
Collector of Hasselbald and Rolleiflex cameras, Thierry Dreyfus is used to shoot with films for prints without retouching.
Two selections of photographs, among thousands taken throughout his career, were published by Editions Assouline, Paris (2005) and Editions du Regard, Paris (2013).
He has also produced "photo shoots" for the book of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs exhibition, "Fashion Icons" at the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide (AGSA) (2014) (chief curator : Pamela Goldin).
His photographs have been featured in several exhibitions : at the Galerie Claude Samuel, in Paris (2009), then at the Invisible Dog Art Center, in Brooklyn New-York (2010), and at the "Planches Contact" Festival of Deauville (curator: Patrick Remy) (2014).
The Royal Monceau Hotel, in Paris, renovated by Philippe Stark, has acquired since 2010, 35 of his "Neugamme" silver prints in its collection (curator: Hervé Mikaeloff).
=== Public lectures ===
He participated in the Design BODW and Fashion FAHK Conferences in Hong Kong|Hong-Kong (2017), the Brainstorm Design in Singapore on "The Power of Light" (2018) organized by Fortune (magazine)|Fortune and Wallpaper (magazine)|Wallpaper* and the Condenast Luxury Conference (2019).
Category:French artists
Category:French people
Category:1960 births