Ruth Sacks | |
---|---|
Born | 27 September 1977 |
Nationality | South African |
Known for | Installation art, artist books, performance |
Ruth Sacks (born 1977) is a South African artist who lives and works in Johannesburg. [1] She is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the South African Research Chair Initiative (SARChI) for Social Change at Fort Hare University. Sacks holds a PhD (Arts) from the University of the Witwatersrand where she was a fellow at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER). Her third artist book, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under Seas, was launched in 2013. She is a laureate of the HISK in Ghent. She was one of the facilitators of the artist-run project space the Parking Gallery, hosted by the Visual Arts Network of South Africa (VANSA) in Johannesburg. Ruth Sacks' work has been presented internationally in venues such as the African Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007, the ZKM Centre for Art and Media, Karlsruhe in 2011 and the National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi in 2017. [2]
She obtained an MFA from the University of Cape Town in 2007. Sacks is a laureate of the Higher Institute for Fine Art (HISK) in Ghent, Belgium. [3] [4] [5]
She obtained BFA, Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town [6] in 1999, MFA, Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town in 2007 and PhD (Arts), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 2017.
Sacks' work examines historical moments in art, architecture and the applied arts in order to comment on contemporary environments. She works with fictional narratives as a tool for encouraging multiple interpretations of dominant viewpoints. Sacks creates new fictions by revising and adapting existing texts and motifs, alongside developing new ones. Throughout her practice, emphasis is placed on the use of typography, design and language systems.
She mainly works with installation, text pieces and performance.
"Sacks' practice is research-based and usually takes the form of book works, installations and text pieces." – Gabi Ngcobo [7]
Sacks has exhibited widely, with group exhibitions including: The Global Contemporary: Art Worlds after 1989 at ZKM |Centre for Art and Media (Germany, 2011), Performa 09, facilitated by the Museum for African Art New York (USA, 2009), Luanda_Pop Checklist at the 52nd Venice Biennale (Italy, 2007) and the 1st Architecture, Art and Landscape Biennial of the Canaries (Spain, 2006). [8] Sacks' solo exhibitions include Matterings at TPO (Johannesburg, 2017), Open Endings at TTTT (Ghent, 2015), 2,000 Meters Above the Sea at CHR (Johannesburg, 2012), Double-Sided Accumulated at Extraspazio (Rome, 2010), False Friends at Kunstverein (Amsterdam, 2010) and Open Studio at Cortex Athletico (Bourdeaux, 2007). International group exhibitions include: Future Africa: Visions in Time at the National Museums of Kenya (Nairobi, 2017) and Iwalewa-Haus (Bayreuth, 2015), The Global Contemporary: Art Worlds after 1989 at ZKM |Centre for Art and Media (Karlsruhe, 2011), Performa 09, facilitated by the Museum for African Art (New York, 2009), the African Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale (Venice, 2007) and the 1st Architecture, Art and Landscape Biennale of the Canaries (Tenerife, 2006). [2]
Her third artist book, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under Seas, was scheduled to be launched at the Musee Jules Verne in Amiens, France. Previous books to date are: False Friends, published by Kunstverein Press, Amsterdam (the Netherlands, 2010) and An Extended Alphabet, published by Expodium, Utrecht (the Netherlands, 2011).
Marjetica Potrč is an artist and architect based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Potrč's interdisciplinary practice includes on-site projects, research, architectural case studies, and drawings. Her work documents and interprets contemporary architectural practices and the ways people live together. She is especially interested in social architecture and how communities and governments can work together to make stronger, more resilient cities. In later projects, she has also focused on the relationship between human society and nature, and advocated for the rights of nature.
Berni Searle is an artist who works with photography, video, and film to produce lens-based installations that stage narratives connected to history, identity, memory, and place. Often politically and socially engaged, her work also draws on universal emotions associated with vulnerability, loss and beauty.
Willem Boshoff is one of South Africa's foremost contemporary artists and regularly exhibits nationally and internationally.
Guillaume Bijl is a Belgian conceptual and an installation artist. He lives and works in Antwerp.
Nicolaus Schafhausen is a German curator, director, author, and editor of numerous publications on contemporary art. Since 2012 he has been the Strategic Director of Fogo Island Arts, an initiative of the Canadian Shorefast Foundation to find alternative solutions for the revitalization of the area that is prone to emigration. Schafhausen is also a Visiting Lecturer at HISK, Higher Institute of Fine Arts, Gent.
Abrie Fourie is a South African born artist. He currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
Hou Hanru is an international art curator and critic based in San Francisco, Paris and Rome. He is Artistic Director of the MAXXI in Rome, Italy.
Tracey Rose is a South African artist who lives and works in Johannesburg. Rose is best known for her performances, video installations, and photographs.
Gavin Rain is a contemporary South African artist, working primarily in acrylic, best known for his Neo-Pointillist style paintings.
Mounir Fatmi is an artist of Moroccan heritage. Born in the city of Tangiers, he spent a majority of his time the neighborhood of Casabarata. This neighborhood was known as one of the poorest in the city. He would often spend his time in the flea market, where his mother made a living by selling children's clothing. It was in this very environment that he found himself surrounded by commonly used objects and waste products.
Athi-Patra Ruga is a South African artist who uses performance, photography, 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. Themes such as sexuality, HIV/AIDS, African culture, and the place of queerness within post-apartheid South Africa also permeate his work.
Johan Thom, is a visual artist who works across video, installation, performance and sculpture. He has been described as one of South Africa's foremost performance artists.
Aïda Ruilova is an American contemporary artist.
Defne Ayas is a curator, educator, and publisher in the field of contemporary art and its institutions. Ayas directed and advised many institutions and collaborative platforms across the world, including in China, South Korea, United States, Netherlands, Russia, Lithuania and Italy. She is known for conceiving exhibition and biennale formats within diverse geographies, in each instance composing interdisciplinary frameworks that provide historical anchoring and engagement with local conditions. Until June 2021, Ayas was the Artistic Director of 2021 Gwangju Biennale, together with Natasha Ginwala.
Dineo Seshee Bopape is a South African multimedia artist. Using experimental video montages, sound, found objects, photographs and dense sculptural installations, her artwork "engages with powerful socio-political notions of memory, narration and representation." Among other venues, Bopape's work has been shown at the New Museum, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, and the 12th Biennale de Lyon. Solo exhibitions of her work have been mounted at Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam; Kwazulu Natal Society of Arts, Durban; and Palais de Tokyo. Her work in the collection of the Tate.
Peju Alatise is a Nigerian artist, poet, writer, and a fellow at the National Museum of African Art, part of the Smithsonian Institution. Alatise received formal training as an architect at Ladoke Akintola University in Oyo State, Nigeria. She then went on to work for 20 years as a studio artist.
Senzeni Marasela is a South African visual artist born in Thokoza who works across different media, combining performance, photography, video, prints, textiles, and embroidery in mixed-medium installations. She obtained a BA in Fine Arts at the Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 1998. Her work is exhibited in South Africa, Europe, and the United States, and is part of local and international collections, including Museum of Modern Art or the Newark Museum and is referenced in numerous academic papers, theses journal, and book publications.
Breda Beban (1952–2012) was a Yugoslavian film and video artist. Beban was born in Novi Sad and studied art in Zagreb. She moved to Britain in 1991.
Gabi Ngcobo is a South African curator, artist and educator. Currently she is the Curatorial Director at the Javett Art Centre at the University of Pretoria (Javett-UP).
Ângela Ferreira is a Portuguese and South African installation artist, video artist, photographer and sculptor. She spends time in both countries.