Igshaan Adams

Igshaan Adams is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice seamlessly fuses performance, weaving, sculpture, and installation. Born in Bonteheuwel, a township in Cape Town, South Africa, Igshaan Adams creates artwork deeply rooted in his background, challenging boundaries related to race, sexuality, and religion. Igshaan Adams's art serves as a canvas upon which he inscribes and reinscribes traces of personal histories, weaving a rich intersectional tapestry.

Igshaan Adams's Art Style

Adams's artistic approach encompasses a rich array of materials, ranging from thread and beads to wire, linoleum, cotton twine, and fabric. He approaches materiality from a subjective standpoint, infusing cultural and religious references into his work. This intimate connection with materials allows Adams to explore their potential for transformation and evolution in various contexts. This exploration mirrors his own journey of self-discovery, a continuous process of covering and uncovering, doing and undoing.

In Adams's own words:

Igshaan Adams's Exhibitions, Artist Residencies and Public Collections

Adams's work has had solo exhibitions at prestigious institutions, including The Art Institute of Chicago, Kunsthalle Zurich, Hayward Gallery in London, SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, Akershus Kunstsenter in Oslo, and Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town, among others. He has also made his mark in international group shows, such as the São Paulo Biennale (2023), the Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah (2023), and The Milk of Dreams at the Venice Biennale (2022).

Throughout his career, Adams has been the participant in various artist residencies, including ones at Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town, A4 Arts Foundation in Cape Town, the Sommerakademie im Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, and the IAAB Pro Helvetia residency in Basel. His significant contributions to the art world earned him the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art in 2018.

Igshaan Adams's paintings have found their place in numerous public collections, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Inhotim Museum in Brazil, the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art.