Athi-Patra Ruga
ABOUT
Exploring the border-zones between fashion, performance and contemporary art, Athi-Patra Ruga makes work that exposes and subverts the body in relation to structure, ideology and politics. Bursting with eclectic multicultural references, carnal sensuality and a dislocated undercurrent of humor, his performances, videos, costumes and photographic images create a world where cultural identity is no longer determined by geographical origins, ancestry or biological disposition, but is increasingly becoming a hybrid construct. A Utopian counter-proposal to the sad dogma of the division between mind and body, sensuality and intelligence, pop culture, craft and fine art, his works expresses the eroticism of knowledge and reconciles the dream with experience.
Recent exhibitions include: Beauty and Pleasure in Contemporary South African Art at the Stenersen Museum in Oslo, Norway; the Guangzhou Trienalle in China, Ampersand at the Daimler Collection (Berlin); _ A Life Less Ordinary - Performance and Display in South African Art_, (UK); For Those Who Live in It - Pop culture Politics and Strong Voices, MU (Holland), Athi-Patra Ruga - The Works, Solo Exhibition at FRED (London); Dak’Art - Biennale of African Contemporary Art (Dakar).
Athi-Patra Ruga was also 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. His works form part of private public and museum collections here and abroad, namely: Museion - Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Bolzano Italy; CAAC - Pigozzi Collection; The Wedge Collection, Iziko South African National Gallery.
EXHIBITIONS
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, Johanesburg
* 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
RESIDENCIES
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.
