Athi-Patra Ruga
Born Unmata, South Africa 1984. Lives in Cape Town.
Athi-Patra is represented by WHATIFTHEWORLD.
Athi-Patra Ruga’s work adopts 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 critique the existing political and social status quo. 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.
Exhibitions include: Art Afrique, Louis Vuitton Foundation; Women’s Work, IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Queer Threads: Crafting Identity and Community, Boston Centre for the Arts; Imaginary Fact at the South African Pavilion, 55th Venice Biennale; Public Intimacy at the SFMOMA; The Film Will Always Be You: South African Artists on Screen at the Tate Modern; and Making Africa at the Guggenheim Bilbao.
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