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Associate Professor
Name: Prof Ruth Sacks
Location: 125, FADA Building Bunting Road Campus
FADA Visual Art Permanent Academic Staff听 Staff Members
Contact Details:
Tel: +27(0)11 559 1705
Email:听rsacks@uj.ac.za
About Prof. Ruth Sacks
Lectures in:
History and Theory of Art I
History and Theory of Art II
History and Theory of Art III
Postgraduate Studies
Qualifications:听BAFA (UCT) MFA (UCT); PhD Humanities (WISER, Wits)
Short Biography:
Prof Ruth Sacks () is a visual artist and academic whose practice is based in the medium of artist books, sculptural installations and interdisciplinary writing. Her first academic book, Congo Style: From Belgian Art Nouveau to African Independence was published by Michigan 欧美福利100000 Press in 2023. The Remaindering (2022) is her most recent artist book. Research interests include Africa in the Anthropocene and the post-independence aesthetics of the African City. Sacks has exhibited widely locally and internationally, including at: CIVA Museum and Archives (Brussels), M KHA Museum of Contemporary Art (Antwerp), ZKM | Centre for Arts and Media (Karlsruhe), Performa09 (New York), the African Pavilion at the 2007 Venice Biennale, the National Museums of Kenya (Nairobi), the Johannesburg Art Gallery, Kunstverein (Amsterdam) and Extraspazio (Rome). She is a board member of the Arts Council for the African Studies Association (ACASA) and a member of the international African Critical Inquiries Program (ACIP) committee as well as the SAcan Department of Higher Education and Training 听(DHET) Creative Outputs sub-panel.
Recent publications (books, single authored):
Sacks, R. (2023) Congo Style: From Art Nouveau to African Independence, Ann Arbor:听Michigan 欧美福利100000 Press. DOI:
Recent publications (book chapter, edited volume):
Sacks, R. (2023) 鈥楤ehind Johannesburg: Plants and Possible Futures in an Industrialised Hinterland鈥� In Gupta et al (eds.) Hinterlands, 听Planetary Hinterlands: Extraction, Abandonment and Care, Palgrave Macmillan. DOI:
Recent publications (journal articles):
Sacks R. and Thumbran, J. (2022) 鈥楻ethinking Resilience: South Africa and Self Reliance鈥�, In Sacks, R and Thumbran, J. (eds) Social Dynamics, Special Issue: Rethinking Resilience, Taylor & Francis.
Sacks, R. (2020)听听鈥楽ites of Unfinished Independence in Johannesburg and Kinshasa鈥�, In Murray, N., Pyper, B. and Weintraub, J. (eds.) Critical African Studies Vol. 11, Issue I, Special Edition Secret Affinities, Taylor & Francis.
Sacks, R. (2018) 鈥楲ived Remainders: The contemporary lives of iron hotels in the Congo鈥�, In Douchet, I., Frichot, H. and Smith, C. (eds.) Architectural Theory Review Vol. 22, Issue I, Special Edition Resist, Reclaim, Speculate: Situated Perspectives on Architecture in the City,
Taylor & Francis.
Recent Conference and Seminar Papers:
2023: 鈥業magining Africa in the Postcolonial City: Interdisciplinary Reflections on Congo Style,鈥�听African Studies Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco.听
2022: 鈥楾he Everyday Materiality of Colonial Buildings鈥�, Lagos Studies Association, 欧美福利100000 of Lagos [online]
2022: 鈥榃hat Can Art Bring to African Studies on a Wounded Planet?鈥�, Africa-Europe: Reciprocal Perspectives, Albert Ludwig 欧美福利100000, Freiburg, Germany
2021: 鈥楤etween the Botanical Garden and Contemporary Art鈥�, In Whose Place: Confronting Vestiges of the Colonial Landscape in Africa, 欧美福利100000 of the Witwatersrand [online]
2021: 鈥業nner City Planting in Dialogue with the Hinterland鈥�, Hinterlands Workshop, online
2019: 鈥楺uestioning Resilience鈥�,听The Third African Studies Association in Africa, Nairobi, Kenya
JOURNAL EDITING
Sacks, R and Thumbran, J. (eds) Social Dynamics, Special Issue: Rethinking Resilience, Taylor & Francis.
PUBLISHED ARTIST BOOKS (SOLE AUTHOR)
The Remaindering (2022), Garamond Press, Johannesburg, South Africa听
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under Seas (2013), Garamond Press, Johannesburg, South Africa
An Extended Alphabet听(2011), , Utrecht, The Netherlands
False Friends听(2010), Kunstverein Publishing, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Recent Solo Exhibitions
2022: Concrete Ecologies, Pulp Paperworks, Johannesburg, South Africa
2017: Matterings, The Point of Order, Johannesburg, South Africa听
2015: Open Endings, TTTT, Gent, Belgium
2013: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under Seas, Muse茅 Jules Verne, Amiens, France
2012: 2,000 Meters Above the Sea, Center for Historical Reenactments, Johannesburg, SA
2010: Double-Sided Accumulated, Extraspazio, Rome, Italy
Recent Group Exhibitions听
2023: Style Congo: Heritage and Heresy, CIVA Museum & Archive, Brussels, Belgium (curated by Sammy Baloji, Silvia Franceschini, Nikolaus Hirsch, Estelle Lecaille (cat)
2023: Overwhelmed, UJ Gallery, 欧美福利100000 of Johannesburg, South Africa
2022: Situated Makings, FADA Gallery, 欧美福利100000 of Johannesburg, South Africa
2021: Response-Ability, Greenhouse Project, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2021: Power of 35!听ABSA Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2020: Here Comes Summer, Museum Cultuur Strombeek, Brussels, Belgium.
2020: Rally, Melpark Sports Centre, Johannesburg (Johannesburg Lasts)
2019: AMPERES, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M KHA), Belgium
(curator: Nav Haq)
2019-15: Future Africa: Visions in Time, Makerere Art Gallery, Kampala, Uganda; National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare; Goethe Institut South Africa, Johannesburg, SA; National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya; Bayreuth Academy, Germany (catalogue)
2017: Booknesses, FADA Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2016: African Art Book Fair听(featured artist), Dakar, Senegal (curator: Katja Gentric)
2015: A New Spirit in Booking, Museum Cultuur Strombeek, Brussels, Belgium
(curator: Luc Derycke)
You Love Me, You Love Me Not, Galeria Municipal do Porto, Portugal (curator: Suzana Sousa)
Monologues, Aardklop Festival, Potchefstroom, South Africa (curated by Meredith Randall)
2014: Book arts: Artist鈥檚 books, Gallery AoP, Johannesburg, South Africa
Suspicious Minds,听Iziko Annexe, Cape Town, South Africa
2014: Nesting Narratives,听GoetheonMain, Johannesburg, South Africa
2013: !Kauru, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, South Africa (curator: Melissa Goba)
Back and Forth, South London Gallery, London, UK (curator: Marie Canet)
Regions A-G, Johannesburg City Library, Johannesburg, South Africa
NOPX|artbook|2012|2013, NOPX|limitededitionpics, Turin, Italy
2011: The Global Contemporary: Art Worlds After 1989, ZKM Center for Art & Media, Karlsruhe, Germany (curators: Andrea Buddensieg & Peter Weibel) (catalogue)
顿辞苍鈥檛/笔补苍颈肠, Durban Art Gallery, South Africa (curator: Gabi Ncobo) (catalogue)
Malleability Revisited, Expodium, Utrecht, the Netherlands (catalogue)