Whatiftheworld / gallery

Friday 25th of June 2010 / 18h00

Athi-Patra Ruga will host a book launch for his recent Monograoh (published by Whatiftheworld) as well as a discussion with Andrew Lamprecht at The Book Lounge on Roeland Street, Cape Town on Friday, 25 June at 18h00. Please phone 021 462 2425 for more info.

Exploring the border-zones between fashion ,performance and 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 as well as the Guangzhou Trienalle in China (2008) and Daimler Collection ; and Life less Ordinary - fFoto gallery, Wales.

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; Iziko -South African National Gallery.