Tracey ROSE (b. 1974)
MAQE II
2002
lambda photograph
edition 2/6
118 x 118 cm
Regina Coeli
2002
lambda photograph
118 x 118 cm
Lucie’s Fur 1:1:1 The Messenger
2002
lambda photograph
84 x 63 cm
Little Drawing of a Skeleton
2000
coloured pencil and pastel
31 x 39 cm
BIOGRAPHY
Tracey Rose is best-known for her revolutionary performative practice which often translates to and is accompanied by photography, video, installation, and digital prints. Often described as absurd, anarchic, and carnivalesque, Rose’s work explores themes around post-coloniality, gender and sexuality, race and repatriation.
In 1990, Rose joined the Johannesburg Art Foundation. In 1996, she obtained a BA in Fine Art from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, where she is currently a senior lecturer.
In February and March 2001, as part of the Fresh project, she was artist-in-residence at the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town, where she developed her work for the Venice Biennale 2001, curated by Harald Szeeman.
In 2004, Rose attended The South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance and later obtained her Master of Fine Arts, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK in 2007.
In 2006, Rose was named as one of the 50 best artists of Africa by The Independent.
Born in Durban, she currently lives and works in Johannesburg.
Always evident in her work is the artist’s insistence in confronting the politics of identity, including sexual, racial, and gender-based themes. For Rose, the body, often her own body, is a site for protest, outrage, resistance and pertinent discourse. It is a channel for the demonstration of exasperation, aggravation, disruption and paradox.
Rose has taken part in several residencies including the WysingArts Centre, Cambridgeshire, UK (2014); DAAD, Berlin, Germany (2012/13); Darb1718, Cairo, Egypt (2012); Cruzes, Montevideo, Uruguay (2011); Khoj International Artists Workshop, Vasind, India (2005); Hollywood Hills Horrorhouse, Los Angeles, USA (2001); and OK Centrum, Linz, Austria (2000).
She has exhibited widely locally and internationally, most notably, Tracey Rose: Shooting Down Babylon, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town (2022) and Queens Museum, New York City, USA (2023) and Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland (2023–2024); May You Live in Interesting Times South African National Pavilion, 58thLa Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (2016); Body Talk -Feminism, Sexuality & Body, 49 Nord 6 Est -Frac Lorraine, Metz, France (2016); False Flag, Art Parcours, Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland (2016); Toro Salvaje, Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2016); (x), Reina SofÃa Museum, Madrid, Spain (2014); Waiting for God, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa and Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden (2011); Rose O’Grady (with Lorraine O’Grady), Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa (2011); Lubumbashi Biennial, Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo (2017); Performa 17, New York, USA (2017); Documenta14, Athens, Greece and Kassel, Germany (2017); 11th Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, France (2011); Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK (2010); StedelijkMuseum Amsterdam, Netherlands (2008); Africa Remix, The Haywood Gallery, London, UK and Centre George Pompidou, Paris, France (2005); and Africaine, The Studio Museum, New York, USA (2002), to name a few.
‘The title of the exhibition, Shooting Down Babylon, was taken from the installation of the same name, made in 2016 as a reaction to Donald Trump’s election victory,’ reads the text that accompanied the exhibition’s Kuntmuseum Bern iteration. ‘For this work, Rose subjected herself to cleansing rituals which she filmed and reproduced in a physically insistent video sculpture. This work clearly demonstrates the extent to which Rose’s work is rooted in the physical, in rage and in the search for spirituality.’