Biography

Dr Ruth Sacks (b. 1977) is a visual artist and academic whose creative practice is based in writing, artist books and installation. Her first academic monograph, Congo Style: From Belgian Art Nouveau to African Independence will be published by Michigan University Press. Research interests include southern cities in the Anthropocene and post independence aesthetics in Africa. She is a member of faculty at the University of Johannesburg in the Visual Art Department. Sacks was one of the co-directors of the large-scale group project Response-ability, which took place at the Joubert Park Greenhouse Project (2020-1). 

Solo exhibitions include: Concrete Ecologies at PULP (Johannesburg, 2022), 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). Group exhibitions include: AMBERES at M KHA Museum of Contemporary Art (Antwerp, 2019), 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).