Athi-Patra Ruga

About
Athi-Patra Ruga (b. 1984; Umtata, South Africa) is one of the few artists working in South Africa today, whose work has adopted the trope of myth as a contemporary response to the post-Apartheid era. Ruga creates alternative identities and uses these avatars as a way to parody and critique the existing political and social status quo. Ruga’s artistic approach to creating myths and alternate realities is in some way an attempt to view the traumas of the last 200 years of colonial history from a place of detachment – at a farsighted distance where wounds can be contemplated outside of personalized grief and subjective defensiveness.
The philosophical allure and allegorical value of utopia has been central to Ruga’s practice. His construction of a mythical metaverse populated by characters which he has created and depicted in his work have allowed Ruga to create an interesting space of self reflexivity in which political, cultural, and social systems can be critiqued and parodied. Ruga has used his utopia as a lens to process the fraught history of a colonial past, to critique the present, and propose a possible humanist vision for the future.
Athi-Patra Ruga’s most recent solo exhibitions include Amadoda on the Verge (2024), presented at BKhz gallery in Johannesburg and In Travesti (2021), presented at the Eva Presenhuber Gallery in New York. Other recent exhibitions and performances include: iiNyanga Zonyaka, Norval Foundation, Cape Town and Interior/ Exterior / Dramatis Personae, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, followed by his acclaimed show Of Gods, Rainbows and Omissions at Somerset House, London.
Selected group exhibitions and performances include: In Us Is Heaven (2025) at Southern Guild Los Angeles, California, TRULY RURAL (2024) at the Palazzo Re Rebaudengo, Italy, Significant Other (2024) at WITW x Krone in Tulbagh, Cape Town, This is Not Africa – Unlearn What You Have Learned (2021) at the Aros Museum in Denmark, Kiss My Genders (2019) at Haywood Gallery in London, Ravelled Threads (2018) at Sean Kelly Gallery in Seattle, Art Afrique (2017) at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, Women’s Work (2017) at the IZIKO South African National Gallery in Cape Town, Over the Rainbow (2016) at Performa 17 in New York, An Age of Our Own Making (2016) at Holbaek, Denmark, Queer Threads: Crafting Identity and Community (2014) at the Boston Centre for the Arts, Boston, Public Intimacy (2014) at the SFMOMA, San Francisco, AFRICA: Architecture, Culture and Identity (2015) at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, African Odysseys (2015) at The Brass Artscape in Brussels, The Film Will Always Be You: South African Artists on Screen (2015) at the Tate Modern in London, Making Africa (2015) at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and Imaginary Fact (2013) at the South African Pavilion, 55th Venice Biennale.
In 2019, Ruga was also included in the Locarno Academy and the 66th Flaherty Film Seminar. His work is featured in the new Phaidon publication African Artists 1882-NOW (2021), as well as Black Artists Shaping the World (2021) and Into the Black Fantastic (2022), both published by Thames and Hudson. Ruga’s work is held in internationally renowned public collections, including: The Zeitz MOCAA (Cape Town, SA), Smithsonian Museum of African Art (Washington DC, USA), Museion; Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Bolzano, Italy), Foundation Louis Vuitton collection (Paris, France), Homestead collection, and The Wedge Collection, IZIKO South African Museum (Cape Town, SA), and the Servais Family collection, among numerous significant private collections.
Selected Press:
Of Art, War and Freedom, A Conversation with Athi-Patra Ruga (2024), Wanted Online
Athi-Patra Ruga: Creating Art as a Heritage for South Africa’s Marginalised Youth (2024), Busi Manunga, Your Luxury Africa
In Conversation with Athi-Patra Ruga (2024), The Manor Africa
Interrogating the marks of colonialism – A conversation between the works of art by Athi-Patra Ruga and Irma Stern (2022), Tamsin Meterlerkamp, Daily Maverick
Athi-Patra Ruga’s best photograph: a queer black fantasia with added zebras (2018), Interview by Dale Berning Sawa, The Guardian
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2024 | Amadoda on the Verge [1835-2025], BKhz Gallery, Rosebank, Johannesburg |
2023 | Looking For the One, Iceberg Projects Chicago, USA |
2022 | Athi & Irma ... An Intervention, Irma Stern Museum, Rosebank, Cape Town |
2021 | In Travesti, presented at the Eva Presenhuber Gallery, New York, USA |
2020 | iiNyanga Zonyaka, Norval Foundation, Cape Town |
Interior/Exterior / Dramatis Personae - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town | |
2018 | Of Gods, Rainbows and Omissions, Somerset House, London |
Things We Lost In The Rainbow, Performance (in collaboration with The Institute of Creative Arts), Cape Town | |
2017 | Queens in Exile 2014-2017 - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town |
2016 | Athi-Patra Ruga, Bass Museum of Art, Miami |
2015 | A Land Without A People… For A People Without A Land, In Situ, Paris |
The Elder of Azania, Grahamstown National Arts Festival, Grahamstown | |
2014 | The Future White Women of Azania Saga - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town |
2012 | Ilulwane, Solo Presentation at Long Street Baths, Cape Town |
2011 | Ilulwane Performa 11, New York City, New York |
2010 | Teeth are the Only Bones that Show, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town |
Athi Patra Ruga: The Works, FRED Gallery, London, England | |
The Body In Question IV: La Momma Morta, YOUNG BLACKMAN, Cape Town | |
2009 | After He Left, YOUNG BLACKMAN, Cape Town |
Mister Floating Signifier and the Deadboyz, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town | |
2008 | ..of bugchasers and watusi faghags, Art Extra, Johannesburg |
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 | In Us is Heaven, Southern Guild Los Angeles, California, USA |
2024 | TRULY RURAL, Palazzo Re Rebaudengo, Guarene, Italy |
Against the Bias: Unravelling Material Codes, Reservoir x Mount Nelson, Curated by Reservoir Projects, Mount Nelson, A Belmond Hotel, Cape Town | |
Significant Other - WHATIFTHEWORLD x Krone, Tulbagh, Cape Town, South Africa | |
2022 | Material Echos WITW Amsterdam - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town |
Seeds of the Fig - Twee Jonge Gezellen Wine Estate, Krone x WHATIFTHEWORLD, Tulbagh, South Africa | |
2021 | This is not Africa - Unlearn what you have learned, ARoS Museum, Denmark |
RESTUDIO, Cunningham Contemporary, Johannesburg | |
2020 | Matereality, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town |
Lumieres D’Afrique, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg | |
Pretty Gucci Gorilla, with Kader Attia, Eternal Gallery, Tours, France | |
2019 | Crossing Night: Regional Identities x Global Context, MOCAD (The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit), Michigan |
Radical Love, Ford Foundation, New York | |
Transamerica/n: Gender, Identity, Appearance Today, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas | |
Not What You Want To See, Factoria Habana, Havana Biennale, Havana | |
Kiss My Gender, Hayward Gallery, London | |
2018 | Soft Power, Transpallete Center for contemporary Art, Bourges, France |
Dress Up, Speak Up: Costume and Confrontation, 21c, Louisville | |
Africa State of Mind, New Art Exchange, Nottingham | |
CLOSE, Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG), Johannesburg | |
Ravelled Threads, Sean Kelly Gallery, Seattle | |
The Fabric of Felicity, Garage Museum, Moscow | |
Continental Drift, Cairns Art Gallery, Australia | |
Embodied Politic, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago | |
2017 | The BEATification of Feral Benga, Nordwind Performance festival, Berlin, Germany |
Afrotopia, Les Rencontres de Bamako, Bamako, Mali | |
Dada Africa, Non-Western Sources and Influences, Musee de Orsay, Paris | |
Everyday Anomaly - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town | |
Art Afrique, Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris | |
2016 | Queer Threads: Crafting Identity and Community, Boston Centre for the Arts, Boston |
Women's Work, IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town | |
An Age of Our Own Making, Holbaek, Denmark | |
2015 | Studio: The Lives and Works of South African Artists, IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town |
Foreign Bodies - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town | |
Queer Threads, Leslie & Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, New York | |
Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design, Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain | |
Lumières d'Afriques, Theatre National De Chaillot, Paris | |
Broken English, Tyburn Gallery, London | |
2015 Joburg Art Fair - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg | |
AFRICA: Architecture, Culture and Identity, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Louisiana | |
The Film Will Always Be You: South African Artists on Screen, Tate Modern, London | |
The Elder of Azania, Solo Performance at the Johannesburg Pavilion, 56th La Biennale di Venezia, Venice | |
2014 | Uncertain Terms - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town |
Brave New World...20 Years of Democracy, IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town | |
Public Intimacy, SFMOMA, San Francisco | |
PRÓXIMO FUTURO / NEXT FUTURE, Programa Gulbenkian de Cultura Contemporânea, Lisbon, Portugal | |
African Odysseys, The Brass Artscape, Brussels | |
2013 | Films for Peace , Screened Worldwide including South Africa, Paris, London, New York, Sydney |
Sharp Sharp, Johannesburg, Gaite Lyrique, Paris | |
The Beautyful Ones, Galerie Nolan Judin, Berlin | |
Imaginary Fact, 55th La Biennale di Venezia, South African Pavillion, Venice | |
Between the Lines, Braunschweig University of Art, Berlin | |
Making Way: Contemporary Art from South Africa and China, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg | |
2012 | A SHOT IN THE ARSE, The Michaelis Gallery, Cape Town |
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 | |
Making Way, in collaboration with Mikhael Subotzky, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown | |
2011 | BECOMING: Photographs from the Wedge Collection, Nasher Museum of Art, North Carolina, USA |
A Tribute to Photography, Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, Italy | |
Living as Form Exhibition, New York | |
2010 | From Pierneef to Gugulective, IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town |
For Those Who Live in It - Pop culture Politics and Strong Voices, MU Foundation, Eindhoven, The Netherlands | |
DADA South?, IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town | |
X HOMES, Performance Art Series, Johannesburg | |
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, UK |
Beauty and Pleasure in Contemporary South African Art, Stenersen Museet, Oslo, Norway | |
Infecting the City, Cape Town CBD | |
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, Cape Town | |
2008 | Peripheral Vision and Collective Body, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Bolzano, Italy |
Disguise: The Art of Attracting and Deflecting Attention, Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town | |
Upstairs/Downstairs, Association of Visual Arts, Cape Town | |
The Trickster, Art Extra, Johannesburg |
Art Fairs
Awards
2022 – Ruth Baumgarte Prize, Albertina Museum, Vienna
2017 – Seydou Keïta Prize (Grand Prize) of Les Rencontres de Bamako
2015 – Standard Bank Young Artist Award
Permanent Collections
Foundation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France
Fondation Gandur pour l’Art, Geneva, Switzerland
Smithsonian Museum of African Art, Washington DC, USA
The Zeitz MOCCA, Cape Town
Museion – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Bolzano, Italy
CAAC – Pigozzi Collection
The Wedge Collection
The Servais Family Collection
The IZIKO South African National Gallery
Selected Publications
2021 – African Artists 1882-NOW, PHAIDON.
2021 – Black Artists Shaping the World, Thames and Hudson.
2022 – Into the Black Fantastic, Thames and Hudson.
2014 – F.W.W.O.A SAGA
2012 – The Works 2006-2013
2009 – Younger than Jesus, Phaidon.