Igshaan Adams's practice coalesces performance, weaving, sculpture and installation. Born in Bonteheuwel, a suburb in Cape Town, South Africa, 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.'
Read MoreAdams 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; thread, beads, wire, linoleum, cotton twine, fabric. His interest in material oscillates between the intuitive process of handling different substances and a formal inquiry into how various materials behave in different contexts and how they transfigure or evolve. Likening the material's potential for transformation 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.
Adams has held solo exhibitions internationally, including at Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Boston MA, USA (2024); Thomas Dane Gallery, London, England (2023); The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago IL, USA (2022); Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland (2022); Hayward Gallery, London, England (2021); SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah GA, USA (2020); Akershus Kunstsenter, Oslo, Norway (2019); and The Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa (2018). He has participated in numerous group shows, including Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art at Barbican Centre, London (2024); the 35th Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (2023); Awwal Bayt (First House), the Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (2023); Dreamhome: Stories of Art and Shelter at Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (2023); Narrative Threads at Moody Center for the Arts, Houston TX, USA (2023); The Milk of Dreams, the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (2022); Unknown Unknowns: An Introduction to Mysteries, the 23rd Triennale Milano, Milan, Italy (2022); Slowly Arriving at Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel, Switzerland (2021); Allied with Power at Perez Art Museum, Miami FL, USA (2020); Ngoma: Art and Cosmology at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa; Mapping Black Identities at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis MN, USA (2019); Material Insanity at the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL), Marrakech, Morocco (2019); and In This Imperfect Present Moment at the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle OR, USA (2018).
Text courtesy Thomas Dane Gallery.
