(1982 – )

Igshaan Adams
Contemporary
Overview

South African artist, Igshaan Adams, practices performance, weaving, sculpture, and installation. Born in Bonteheuwel, a township in Cape Town, Adams draws upon his background to contest racial, sexual, and religious boundaries. This intersectional topography remains visible throughout his practice and serves as a palimpsest upon which traces of personal histories are inscribed and reinscribed. He explains,

I’m interested in the personal stories recorded on the surface. What is recorded is not necessarily always a factual account but can be what is imagined – a combination of myth-making and meaning-making”.

Adams approaches materiality through his own subjectivity. Often, cultural and religious references are used in conjunction with surfaces that have always been present throughout his life. And so, thread, beads, wire, linoleum, cotton twine, and fabric all make an appearance in his work. His interest in the material oscillates between the intuitive process of handling different substances as well as a formal inquiry into how various materials behave in different contexts and how they transfigure or evolve depending. Likening the material’s potential for evolution to his own potential for evolution, Adams is engaged in broadening his ideas of selfhood in an ongoing process of covering and uncovering, doing, and undoing.

To date, Adams has held solo exhibitions at Hayward Gallery (London), Casey Kaplan Gallery (New York), SCAD Museum of Art (Savannah), Akershus Kunstsenter (Oslo), blank projects (Cape Town), A Tale of a Tub (Rotterdam), Rongwrong Gallery (Amsterdam), Stevenson Gallery (Cape Town) and AVA Gallery (Cape Town). He has also participated in numerous group shows, both locally and internationally, including Who Are We Are Who (2020) at the BRAUNSFELDER in Cologne, Allied with Power (2020) at Perez Art Museum Miami, Risk (2019) at A4 Arts Foundation, Ngoma: Art and Cosmology (2019) at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, Mapping Black Identities (2019) at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Material Insanity (2019) at the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL), and In This Imperfect Present Moment (2018) at the Seattle Art Museum.

Adams has been selected for several artist residencies, among them: A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town, the Sommerakademie im Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, Switzerland, and the IAAB Pro Helvetia residency, Basel, Switzerland. In 2018, Adams was awarded the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art. Presented annually, the prestigious award culminated in a solo presentation of the recipient’s work, which conducted a nationwide tour of museums and institutions in South Africa.

Chronology

1982

Born in Cape Town, South Africa

Education

2009

Diploma in Fine Art, Ruth Prowse School of Art

2005

Short Course in Professional Photography

2003

National Certificate (N6) in Art & Design, College of Cape Town

Exhibitions

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2022

The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago (forthcoming)

2021 

Kicking Dust, Kunsthalle Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland (forthcoming)

2021 

Kicking Dust, Hayward Gallery, London, UK

2021

Veld Wen, Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York, USA

2020 

Getuie, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah

2020

 Stukkinne stories, blank projects, Cape Town 

2019

 I am no more, Akershus Kunstsenter, Oslo

2018 

When Dust Settles, institutional tour, South Africa

2018 

Al Latîf, blank projects, Cape Town

2016 

Oorskot, blank projects, Cape Town

2015 

Please Remember, A Tale of a Tub, Rotterdam

2015 

Parda, blank projects, Cape Town

2013 

Have you seen Him?, blank projects, Cape Town

2013 

If that I knew, Rongwrong Gallery, Amsterdam

2011 

In Between, Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town

2010 

Vinyl, AVA Gallery, Cape Town

2009 

Jou Ma se Poes, Ruth Prowse School of Art, Cape Town 

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2022 

Summer Salon, Graham Contemporary, Johannesburg, South Africa

2021 

I have made a place, Norval Foundation, Cape Town

2021 

Step Out of Your Body, Enter New Ones – An Exhibition On Community and Spirituality curated by Raphael Gygax, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich

2021 

Where the threads are worn, Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York 

2020 

WHO ARE WE ARE WHO, curated by Fabian Schöneich, Braunsfelder, Cologne

2020 

Allied with Power, Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Miami

2020 

Tomorrow there will be more of us, Stellenbosch Triennale, Stellenbosch

2019 

Risk, curated by Josh Ginsburg, A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town

2019 

Ngoma: Art and Cosmology, JAG, Johannesburg

2019 

The head the hand, blank projects, Cape Town

2019 

Mapping Black Identities, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis

2019 

Kubatana, Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Øvre Eiker

2019 

Matters of Concern, La Verrière, Brussels

2019 

Material Insanity, MACAAL, Marrakech

2019 

Filling in the Gaps, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town

2019 

CONDO London, blank projects hosted by Corvi-Mora, London

2018 

Open agenda, blank projects, Cape Town

2018 

Soft Power, curated by Julie Crenn, Transpalette, Bourges

2018 

In This Imperfect Present Moment, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle

2018 

Pulling at Threads, Norval Foundation, Cape Town

2018 

Ravelled Threads, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York

2018 

Blank, Galerie Guido W. Baudach, Berlin

2018 

Sculpture, Institute of Contemporary Art Indian Ocean, Port Louis

2018 

Da Uno a Dieci, Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia

2017 

Les jour qui vient, Galerie des Galeries, Paris

2016 

Figure, blank projects, Cape Town

2016 

The Quiet Violence of Dreams, Stevenson Gallery, Johannesburg

2016 

3 881 days, blank lab, Cape Town

2016 

The 55-Minute Hour, Trubok Factory, Cape Town

2015 

Furniture: a sculpture exhibition, blank projects, Cape Town

2015 

Sacre du Printemps curated by AA Bronson, Grazer Kunstverein, Graz

2015 

Barriers, Wanås Konst, Knislinge, Sweden

2014 

Next thing you know, blank projects, Cape Town

2014 

No Fixed Abode, The New Church Museum, Cape Town

2014 

Blind Spot, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, South Africa

2014 

Between Subject and Object, Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town

2014 

Bismillah, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, South Africa

2013 

Three Abdullahs, Centre for African Studies, Cape Town

2013 

This is the thing, blank projects, Cape Town

2013 

Blank projects in Johannesburg, Ithuba Arts Gallery, Johannesburg

2012 

When Form Becomes Attitude, blank projects, Cape Town

2012 

Ingekluer: Beyond The Borders, AVA Gallery, Cape Town

2012 

A Century of Self, The Copy Shop, Cape Town

2011

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Stevenson, Cape Town

2011 

Slices of Life, Infecting the City Public Arts Festival, Cape Town

2010 

Laboratory of Recycled Revolutions, Greatmore Studios, Cape Town

2010 

Swallow my Pride, blank projects, Cape Town

2010 

Greatest Hits 2009, AVA Gallery, Cape Town 

Awards

2020

Open Production, A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town

2019

I.D.E.A. Residency Project, Nicoletta Rusconi Art Projects, Milan

2018

Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year Award for Visual Art

2015

A Tale of a Tub, Rotterdam

2014

Sommerakademie im Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, Switzerland

2013

IAAB / Pro Helvetia residency, Basel, Switzerland 

Featured Artwork
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    Igshaan Adams

    Cotton, Twine, Rope and Wire
    180 x 108cm