Athi-Patra Ruga is a South African artist who uses performance, video, textiles, and printmaking to explore notions of utopia and dystopia, material and memory. His work explores the body in relation to sensuality, culture, and ideology, often creating cultural hybrids. Ruga was recently included in the Phaidon book ‘Younger Than Jesus,’ a directory of over 500 of the world’s best artists under the age of 33. In 2014 he presented at Design Indaba Conference in Cape Town.
2014
Uncertain Terms - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape TownAfrican Odysseys, Espace culturel Louis Vuitton, Paris, FrancePROXIMO FUTURO / NEXT FUTURE, Programa Gulbenkian de Cultura Contemporanea, Lisbon, PortugalPublic Intimacy, SFMOMA, San FranciscoBrave New World...20 Years of Democracy, IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape TownThe Future White Women of Azania Saga - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town2013
Between the Lines, Braunschweig University of Art, BerlinMaking Way: Contemporary Art from South Africa and China, Standard Bank Gallery, JohannesburgImaginary Fact, 55th La Biennale di Venezia, South African Pavilion, VeniceThe Beautyful Ones, Galerie Nolan Judin, BerlinFilms for Peace , Screened Worldwide including South Africa, Paris, London, New York, SydneySharp Sharp, Johannesburg, Gaite Lyrique, Paris2012
Making Way, in collaboration with Mikhael Subotzky, National Arts Festival, GrahamstownUnder a Tinsel Sun, The III Moscow International Biennale For Young Art, Moscow, RussiaNeither Man Nor Stone, IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape TownIlulwane, solo presentation at Long Street Baths, Cape TownA SHOT IN THE ARSE, The Michaelis Gallery, Cape Town2011
BECOMING: Photographs from the Wedge Collection, Nasher Museum of Art, North Carolina, USASolo Presentation at VOLTA New York City, New YorkA Tribute to Photography, Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, ItalyLiving as Form Exhibition, New YorkIlulwane - solo presentation at Performa 11, New York City, New York2010
From Pierneef to Gugulective, South African National Gallery, Cape TownAthi-Patra Ruga - The Works, Solo Exhibition FRED Gallery, London, EnglandFor Those Who Live in It - Pop culture Politics and Strong Voices, MU Foundation, Eindhoven, The NetherlandsDADA South, South African National Gallery, Cape TownX HOMES - Performance Art Series, JohannesburgThe Body In Question IV: La Momma Morta, Solo Exhibition, YOUNG BLACKMAN, Cape Town]Africa, Assume Art Position!, Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, Italy2009
A Life Less Ordinary; Performance and Display in South African Art, Djanogly Art Gallery, Nottingham, United Kingdom. [Cat]After He Left, Solo Exhibition, YOUNG BLACKMAN, Cape Town… Mister Floating Signifier and the Deadboyz - Solo Exhibition, Whatiftheworld, Cape TownBeauty and Pleasure in Contemporary South African Art, Stenersen Museet, Oslo, NorwayInfecting the City, Cape Town CBD, South AfricaSpot on Dak’Art - 2008 Retrospective, IFA Gallery, Berlin, GermanyPret a Partager (More than the sum of its parts), IFA Gallery, Stuttgart, GermanyBig Wednesday - Whatiftheworld Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa2008
Peripheral Vision and Collective Body, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Bolzano, ItalyBig Wednesday, Whatiftheworld Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa…of bugchasers and watusi faghags (Solo Exhibition), Art Extra, Johannesburg, South AfricaDisguise: The art of attracting and deflecting attention, Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South AfricaUpstairs/Downstairs, Association of Visual Arts, Cape Town, South AfricaThe Trickster, Art Extra, Johannesburg, South Africa2007
Impossible Monsters, Art Extra, Johannesburg, South Africa.Miss Congo, Performance in collaboration with Christopher Martin, Confluence 4.2, DesignIndaba 10“She is dancing in the Rain with her hand in the toaster”, Performance in collaboration with Christopher Martin, Michael Stevenson Contemporary, Cape Town, South AfricaInj’ibhabha Series, Jaundiced Arcadia / Tales of Counterpenetration, Progr zentrum fur kulturproduction, Bern, Switzerland.2006
Doc. no3, Die Naai Masjien - Miss Congo, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo2005
Doc. no2, Die Naai Masjien- The Revenge of the 9ft Ma-Benz and her Toothless Taxi Kings, Elle New Talent Awards / South African Fashion Week.2004
Doc. no1, Die Naai Masjien - Familie Fortuin, Elle New Talent Awards / South African Fashion Week2007
A.I.R., PROGR- Zentrum fur Kulturproduction. Bern, Switzerland.Kin Be Jozi. August House, Johannesburg, South Africa2006
Scenographies Urbaines. Lingwala, Kinshasa, D.R.C.Ilulwane was a synchronized-swimming performance inspired by Alvin Baltrop’s 1970s and 80s photographs, reflecting on the passage of time in both New York and in the artist’s own Xhosa culture. Ilulwane was performed in Cape Town at the Long Street Baths during the Infecting the City Public Arts Festival in 2012
…ellipsis in three parts is a performance that took place in the Michaelis Galleries at the University of Cape Town with three female performers on three separate days. The artist and performers were covered in body paint and as they wrestled across the gallery walls, they created the print as a record of the live performance. Thus Ruga involves his body directly into the printmaking process.
