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 Town
African Odysseys, Espace culturel Louis Vuitton, Paris, France
PROXIMO FUTURO / NEXT FUTURE, Programa Gulbenkian de Cultura Contemporanea, Lisbon, Portugal
Public Intimacy, SFMOMA, San Francisco
Brave New World...20 Years of Democracy, IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town
The Future White Women of Azania Saga - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town
2013
Between the Lines, Braunschweig University of Art, Berlin
Making Way: Contemporary Art from South Africa and China, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg
Imaginary Fact, 55th La Biennale di Venezia, South African Pavilion, Venice
The Beautyful Ones, Galerie Nolan Judin, Berlin
Films for Peace , Screened Worldwide including South Africa, Paris, London, New York, Sydney
Sharp Sharp, Johannesburg, Gaite Lyrique, Paris
2012
Making Way, in collaboration with Mikhael Subotzky, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown
Under a Tinsel Sun, The III Moscow International Biennale For Young Art, Moscow, Russia
Neither Man Nor Stone, IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Ilulwane, solo presentation at Long Street Baths, Cape Town
A SHOT IN THE ARSE, The Michaelis Gallery, Cape Town
2011
BECOMING: Photographs from the Wedge Collection, Nasher Museum of Art, North Carolina, USA
Solo Presentation at VOLTA New York City, New York
A Tribute to Photography, Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, Italy
Living as Form Exhibition, New York
Ilulwane - solo presentation at Performa 11, New York City, New York
2010
From Pierneef to Gugulective, South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Athi-Patra Ruga - The Works, Solo Exhibition FRED Gallery, London, England
For Those Who Live in It - Pop culture Politics and Strong Voices, MU Foundation, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
DADA South, South African National Gallery, Cape Town
X HOMES - Performance Art Series, Johannesburg
The Body In Question IV: La Momma Morta, Solo Exhibition, YOUNG BLACKMAN, Cape Town]
Africa, Assume Art Position!, Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, Italy
2009
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 Town
Beauty and Pleasure in Contemporary South African Art, Stenersen Museet, Oslo, Norway
Infecting the City, Cape Town CBD, South Africa
Spot on Dak’Art - 2008 Retrospective, IFA Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Pret a Partager (More than the sum of its parts), IFA Gallery, Stuttgart, Germany
Big Wednesday - Whatiftheworld Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2008
Peripheral Vision and Collective Body, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Bolzano, Italy
Big Wednesday, Whatiftheworld Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
…of bugchasers and watusi faghags (Solo Exhibition), Art Extra, Johannesburg, South Africa
Disguise: The art of attracting and deflecting attention, Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Upstairs/Downstairs, Association of Visual Arts, Cape Town, South Africa
The Trickster, Art Extra, Johannesburg, South Africa
2007
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 Africa
Inj’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 Congo
2005
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 Week
2007
A.I.R., PROGR- Zentrum fur Kulturproduction. Bern, Switzerland.
Kin Be Jozi. August House, Johannesburg, South Africa
2006
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.
