Artist Curriculum Vitae

b. 27 Sept 1977, Port Elizabeth, South Africa

EDUCATION

2017: PhD (Visual Culture)
Faculty of Humanities, Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research & Wits School of Arts,
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

2007: Masters of Fine Art
Faculty of Humanities, Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, South Africa

1999: Bachelor of Fine Art
Faculty of Humanities, Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, South Africa

ACADEMIC POSTS & TEACHING

2024: Associate Professor (Visual Art & Theory)
Visual Art Department, Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Johannesburg,
South Africa

2020-3: Senior Lecturer & Senior Tutor (Art History & Theory)
Visual Art Department & Graduate School of Architecture, Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Johannesburg, South Africa

2012 – 2019: Part-time Lecturer (Visual Art)
Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, History and Theory of Architecture, Graduate School of
Faculty of Humanities, Visual Arts, Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, South Africa

2012 – 19: Part-time Trainer (Visual Literacy)
Market Photo Workshop, Johannesburg, South Africa

FELLOWSHIPS

2018 – 2020: Postdoctoral Fellow
South African Research Chair for Social Change, Faculty of Social Sciences & Humanities,
History Department, University of Fort Hare, East London, South Africa

2013 – 16: Doctoral Fellow
Faculty of Humanities, Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

PUBLISHED ARTIST BOOKS

The Remaindering, 2022, Garamond Press (Johannesburg)

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under Seas, 2013, Garamond Press (Bayreuth)

An Extended Alphabet, 2011, Expodium (Utrecht)

False Friends, 2010, Kunstverein Publishing (1st edition: Amsterdam; 2nd edition: Antwerp)

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2022: Concrete Ecologies, Pulp Paperworks, Johannesburg

2017: Matterings, The Point of Order, Johannesburg

2015: Open Endings, TTTT, Ghent

2013: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under Seas, Musee Jules Verne, Amiens

2012: 2,000 Meters Above the Sea, Center for Historical Reenactments, Johannesburg

2010: Double-sided Accumulated, Extraspazio, Rome

2010: False Friends, Kunstverein, Amsterdam (book launch)

2007: Open Studio, Cortex Athletico, Bordeaux

2005: When the Inside Stays Inside, João Ferreira Fine Art, Cape Town (cat)

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023: Style Congo: Heritage and Heresy, CIVA, Brussels (curated by Sammy Baloji, Silvia Franceschini, Nikolaus Hirsch, Estelle Lecaille) (cat)

2023: Overwhelmed, UJ Gallery, Johannesburg

2022: Situated Makings, FADA Gallery, Johannesburg

2021: Response-ability, Greenhouse Project, Johannesburg

2021: Power of 35! ABSA Gallery, Johannesburg

2020: Here Comes Summer, Museum Cultuur Strombeek, Brussels

2020: Alptraum, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance

2020: Rally, Melpark Sports Centre, Johannesburg (Johannesburg Lasts)

2019:  AMBERES – Robert Bolaño’s Antwerp, M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp (curated by Nav Haq)

2017-9: Future Africa: Visions in Time, Makerere Art Gallery, Kampala, Uganda; National Museum of Zimbabwe, Harare; National Museum of Kenya, Nairobi & Goethe-Institut Süd Afrika, Johannesburg (cat)

2017: Booknesses, FADA Gallery, Johannesburg

2016: African Art Book Fair (featured artist), Dakar (curated by Katja Gentric)

2015: A New Spirit in Booking, Museum Cultuur Strombeek, Brussels (curated by Luc Derycke)

2015: You Love Me, You Love Me Not, Galeria Municipal do Porto, Porto (curated by Suzana Sousa & Bruno Leitão)

2015: Future Africa: Visions in Time, Bayreuth Academy Exhibition, Bayreuth (curated by Nadine Siegert & Storm Janse Van Rensburg)

2015: Monologues, Aardklop Festival, Potchefstroom (curated by Meredith Randall)

2014: Book arts: Artist’s books, Gallery AOP, Johannesburg

2014: Nesting Narratives, GoetheonMain, Johannesburg

2014: Shop Front and Centre (Infecting the City), St George’s Mall, Cape Town

2013: Regions A-G, Johannesburg City Library, Johannesburg

2013-4: Suspicious Minds, Michaelis Gallery, Iziko Annexe, Cape Town (curated by Fabian Saptouw)

2013: IKAURU, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria,

2013: NOPX|artbook|2012|2013, NOPX|limitededitionpics, Turin

2013: Back and Forth, South London Gallery, London (curated by Marie Canet)

2012: Evolution de l’Art, Kunstverein Milano, Milan (curated by Katia Anguelova and Valerio  Del Baglivo)

2011: The Global Contemporary: Art Worlds After 1989, ZKM | Centre for Art and Media, Karlsruhe (curated by Peter Weibel and Andrea Buddensieg) (cat)

2011: Malleability Revisited (locatie: Kanaleneiland), Expodium, Utrecht (cat)

2011-2: DON’T/PANIC, Durban Art Gallery, Durban, Center for Historical Reenactments, Johannesburg (curated by Gabi Ngcobo) (cat)

2011: Anonymously Yours, Maison Gregoire, Brussels (cat)

2011-2: Alptraum, Deutscher Kuenstlerbund – Projektraum, Berlin, The Company, LA, USA; blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa, GoetheonMain, Johannesburg, South Africa

2010: FIT Chapter H, Maison Gregoire, Brussels (curated by Emmanuel Lambion)

2009: Performa 09, Produced by the Museum for African Art, New York (curated by Roselee Golderg) (cat)

2009: Dada South?, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town (curated by Kathryn Smith and Roger Van Wyk)

2009: Futur, Frac Aquitaine, Bordeaux (curated by Marie Canet)

2009: Polyphonie, Grenslandhal, Watou (curated by Hans Martens)

2009: First Things First, CCNOA, Brussels

2009: Test Patterns, San Francisco Camerawork, San Francisco (curated by Leigh Illion)

2008: False Friends, Conflict Room, Antwerp

2008: Scratching the Surface Vol. I, Association for Visual Arts, Cape Town (curated by Gabi Ngcobo).

2008: . ZA, giovane arte dal Sudafrica, Palazzo Delle Papesse, Siena (curated by Lorenzo Fusi) (cat)

2007: Luanda Pop_Check List, Biennale di Venezia 2007 (curated by Fernando Alvim and Simon Njami)

2007: Fresh II (National Arts Festival), Grahamstown (curated by Jay Pather)

2006: 1st Architecture, Art and Landscape Biennial of the Canaries, Los Lavaderos, Tenerife, Spain (curated by Antonio Zaya) (cat)

2004: Negotiate, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg.

FUNDED ARTIST RESIDENCIES

2014: Pro Helvetia SADC residency, Kinshasa, DRC

2014:  Osthang Project, Darmstadt, Germany

2013:  International Residency at Recollets, Paris, France

2008-9: Hoger Instituut van Schone Kunsten (HISK), Ghent, Belgium

2007:  Cité des Arts, Paris, France (awarded for winning first prize in the 2006 ABSA L’Atelier Competition)

ACADEMIC BOARDS AND ASSOCIATESHIPS

2024-2026: Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA), Board Member

2017-: Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER), Research Associate

ORGANISATION OF COLLABORATIVE ART PROJECTS & ACADEMIC CONFERENCES

2020-21: Co-Director, Response-Ability, Greenhouse Project, Johannesburg, South Africa
Funded by the Prince Claus Fund, the Netherlands, & the Goethe-Institut, Germany

2020: Co-organizer, Rethinking Resilience, hosted by Rhodes University and the African Critical
Inquiries Program [online]

2019: Co-organizer, Johannesburg Lasts workshop for Ellipses Journal, University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

2015: Co-organizer, Médiation passée, présente et future, l’Académie des Beaux Arts de
Kinshasa, DR Congo

2012 – 13: Project Coordinator
Parking Gallery, hosted by the Visual Arts Network of South Africa, Johannesburg

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY (SOLO PROJECTS) 

Munnik, G. 2022. ‘Monstrous Elasticity: Ruth Sacks ‘The Remaindering’ Artthrob.co.za [online].

Mecugni, A. 2010. ‘Ruth Sacks’: Art in America International Review 2010. p. 84  [pdf]

Iaceolla, A. 2010. ‘Ruth Sacks’: Exibart. Year XIX no 64. p. 65  [pdf]

Fiacco, D. 2010. ‘Ruth Sacks at Gallery Extraspazzio, Rome’: Arskey [online]
Available: http://www.teknemedia.net/magazine_detail.html?mId=7671

Williamson, S. 2009. ‘Ruth Sacks’: South African Art Now. Collins Design. p. 262-3

Arnaudet, D. 2007. ‘Open Studio’: Art Press. No. 339. p. 87  [pdf]

Vincent, C. 2007. ‘Ruth Sacks Cortex Athletico’: Art South Africa . Vol 6 Issue 2.
pp. 90 – 1   [pdf]

Vincent, C. 2007. ‘Cabinet de lecture’: Art 21. Numero 13. p. 42   [pdf]

O’Toole, S. 2007. ‘So What Does Ruth Do Again?’: Art South Africa. Vol. 5. Issue 4. p. 18.

Williamson, S. 2006. ‘Ruth Sacks Artbio’: Artthrob [online]. Available: https://www.artthrob.co.za/06oct/artbio.html