Tracey Rose is best known for her uncompromising performative practice that often translates to and is accompanied by photography, video, installation and digital prints. Often described as absurd, anarchic, slap-dash and carnivalesque, Rose’s work explores themes around post-coloniality, gender and sexuality, and race.
Rose was born in Durban, South Africa and in 1990, she joined the Johannesburg Art Foundation before obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art from the University of the Witwatersrand inJohannesburg in 1996. In 2004, Rose attended The South African School of Motion Picture Mediumand Live Performance and later obtained her master of Fine Arts at Goldsmiths College, University of London, United Kingdom in 2007. She currently lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Rose has taken part in several residencies, including the RAW Academy, Dakar Senegal (2018);Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridgeshire, UK (2014); DAAD, Berlin, Germany (2012/13); Darb1718, Cairo,Egypt (2012); Cruzes, Montevideo, Uruguay (2011); Khoj International Artists Workshop Vasind, India(2005); Africa 2005 Residency, The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK,(2004); Hollywood Hills Horrorhouse, Los Angeles, CA, USA (2001); Fresh, South African NationalGallery, Cape Town, South Africa (2001); and OK Centrum, Linz, Austria (2000).
She has been widely exhibited internationally, most notably at ‘May You Live in Interesting Times’,South African National Pavilion; 58th La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (2016); ‘Body Talk -Feminism, Sexuality & Body’, 49 Nord 6 Est – Wiels, Center for Contemporary Art, Brussels, Belgium (2016); ‘False Flag, Art Parcours’, Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland (2016); ‘Toro Salvaje’, Museum ofModern Art, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2016); ’(x)’, Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain (2014); ‘Waitingfor 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); Documenta 14, 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); Stedelijk Museum 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.
Text courtesy Zeitz MOCAA

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