Biography

Using a wide range of mediums, including performance and moving image, Tracey Rose investigates post-colonial, racial and feminist issues. Her work has focused on the role of blind nationalism and religious dogma in South Africa.

Rose’s work has been presented in a number of solo exhibitions, including False Flag, Parcours, Art Basel (2016); Lassoing with the Post-Colonial Pirates, Dan Gunn Gallery, Berlin (2015); (x), Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid (2014) and Waiting for God, Johannesburg Art Gallery (2011). Among her group exhibitions are Performa 17, New York (2017); documenta 14, Athens and Kassel (2017); 32nd São Paulo Art Biennial (2016); Dakar Biennial (2016); Biennial of Moving Images, Geneva (2016); Still (the) Barbarians, EVA International, Limerick, Ireland (2016); Body Talk: Feminism, Sexuality and the Body in the Work of African Women Artists, Wiels Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels (2015); A Terrible Beauty Is Born, Lyon Biennale (2011); Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic, Tate Liverpool (2010); Laugh Track, Brussels Biennial (2008) and Check List Luanda Pop, African Pavilion, 52nd Venice Biennale (2007).

Rose completed residencies at EVA International, Dublin (2016); DAAD Berlin Artists-in-Residence Programme (2012–2013) and Darb 1718, Cairo (2012).

Rose has worked in the Fine Arts Department, University of Pretoria, South Africa (2008); California Institute of the Arts, Valencia (2006); Chicago Art Institute (2006) and Columbia College, Chicago (2006). She holds a bachelor’s degree in fine art from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (1996) and a master’s degree in fine art from Goldsmiths College, University of London (2007). She was also trained in editing and cinematography at the South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance, Johannesburg (2004).

She was born in 1974 in Durban, South Africa, where she continues to live and work.

SAF participation:
Sharjah Biennial 14

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Best known for her performance work that embodies a feminist perspective, Tracey Rose often conceives of rich characters who inhabit tableaus as visceral, complex and unnerving as the worlds from which they are torn.