Igshaan Adams

Born in 1982 in Cape Town, South Africa, Igshaan Adams's cross-disciplinary practice combines performance, weaving, sculpture, and installation in an ongoing investigation of his own identity. The quiet activism of Adams' work speaks to his experiences of racial, religious, and sexual liminality, and he uses the material and formal iconographies of Islam and South African mixed-race culture to develop a more equivocal, phenomenological approach toward these concerns.

To date, Adams has held nine solo exhibitions internationally, including locations such as Cape Town, South Africa; Rotterdam, Netherlands; and Amsterdam, Netherlands. He has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, both locally and internationally, at institutions including the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota; the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden, Marrakech, Morocco; the Seattle Art Museum, Washington; Sean Kelly Gallery, New York; Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia, Italy; Galerie des Galeries, Paris; Grazer Kunstverein, Graz, Austria; and the Wanås Foundation, Knislinge, Sweden. In 2018, Adams was awarded the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art, South Africa. He graduated from the Ruth Prowse School of Art, Cape Town, South Africa.