MICHAEL MACGARRY

(b. 1978 Durban, South Africa)

Michael MacGarry is a multi-award-winning visual artist and filmmaker based in Johannesburg. His practice focuses on socio-political and economic narratives, particularly within the context of Africa, drawn through a post-humanist autobiographical mode. He holds a Master’s Degree in Fine Art from the University of the Witwatersrand, is a fellow of the Gordon Institute of Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) at the University of Cape Town and a recipient of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award 2010.

MacGarry’s political and poetic oeuvre is realised across a diverse range of media - including sculpture, photography, paper, installation and film. 

He has exhibited internationally at institutions including TATE Modern, Guggenheim Bilbao, Kiasma Museum and Iziko South African National Gallery. He has published four monographs on his work. As a filmmaker, Michael has written and directed seven short films, having featured on more than 30 international film festivals and is a recipient of an El Ray Award - Excellence in Narrative Short Filmmaking (Barcelona Film Festival 2015), a finalist for the Huysmans Young African Filmmaker Award 2015 (Belgium) as well as Jury Awards from 19th VideoBrasil (Sao Paulo), K3 Internationales Film Festival (Austria) and 13th International Festival Signes de Nuit (Paris).

EDUCATION

2012 Fellow of Gordon Institute of Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA), 

        University of Cape Town
2004 MFA (Distinction), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
2000 BFA (Cum Laude, Dean’s List), Technikon Natal, Durban
1999 IES Cheltenham and Gloucester College, U.K. 

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024 The System Absorbs All Opposition, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2022 Genre pictures, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2021 Superstructure, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2018 A course sorting of the readily available, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

         We are now, what you once were, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2017 SHOW NO PAIN, the collected film and video work of Michael MacGarry, Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa

2016 Between Rot and Genesis, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2015 There’s an Animal Inside, FNB Joburg Art Fair

2013 As Above, So Below, Centre for Democracy, Cape Town, South Africa

2012 The Other Half, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa

2011 Entertainment, Stevenson, Johannesburg, South Africa

2010 END GAME, Standard Bank Young Artist Award 2010 (Visual Arts) Monument Gallery, Grahamstown, South Africa

2010 This is your world in which we grow, and we will grow to hate you, Stevenson, Johannesburg, South Africa

2008 When enough people start saying the same thing, Art Extra, Johannesburg, South Africa

2004 Or Until the World Improves, The Premises Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023 What I Feel When I Think About The Cosmos, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

        Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

        ARES, curated by Henry Hussey & Sophia Olver, Cromwell Place, London, UK

2022 3D in 2022, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

        God of War, OHSH Projects, London, UK

        Time is Going: Archive and future memories, curated by Azu Nwagbogu, EUNIC Senegal for Dak'Art Biennale,

        Dakar, Senegal

2021 ARCOLisboa online, with Everard Read, Lisbon, Portugal

        In Conversation, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2020 Matereality, curated by Andrea Lewis, Iziko SA National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

        Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

        Pentatonic Rubbernecking, with Jacob van Schalkwyk, GUS, Stellenbosch, South Africa

        STILL, Everard Read online exhibition, South Africa

        The Portrait Show, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2019 Still here tomorrow to high five you yesterday…, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, South Africa

        Africa State of Mind, Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco, USA; Royal West of England, UK

        Academy, Bristol & Impressions Gallery, Bradford, UK

        FNB Art Joburg, with Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

        Chinafrika, curated by Jochen Becker, Kunstraum, Konfuzius Institut, Nurnberg, Germany

        In the Belly of the Whale, with Dale Adcock, Transition, London, UK

2018 Making Africa, curated by Okwui Enwezor & Amelie Klein, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas, USA

        Flow of Forms, Völkerkundemuseum, Hamburg, Germany

2017 Off the wall, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

         Another Antipodes, PS Art Space, Fremantle, Australia

2016 Sub-Sahara: Accelerated Urbanism in Africa, Tel Aviv, Museum of Art, Israel

         Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2015 Bronze, Steel & Stone, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

        The Film Will Always Be You, TATE Modern, London, UK

        Making Africa. A Continent of Contemporary Design, Curated by Okwui Enwezor and Amelie Klein,

        Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain

        Africa: Architecture, Culture, Identity, Curated by Mathias Ussing Seeberg

        Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark

        The Johannesburg Pavilion, During the 56th la Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy

        Africa Salon, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

2014 Half-­Devil Half-­Child, Blank Projects, Cape Town, South Africa

        Pop Goes the Revolution, The New Church, Cape Town, South Africa

2013 'MINE' – MC2a – MIGRATIONS CULTURELLES, Aquitaine Afriques, Bordeaux, France

2012 Impakt Festival, CBKU, Utrecht, Netherlands

        Making Way: Contemporary Art from South Africa and China, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2011 Johannesburg Contested Terrains, Tate Modern, London, UK

        ARS 11, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art Helsinki, Finland

2010 Ampersand, Damiler Art Collection, Berlin, Germany

        Life Less Ordinary: Performance and display in South African art, Ffotogallery, Cardiff, UK

        Forex: This is our time, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa

2009 Life Less Ordinary: Performance and display in South African art, Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham

       Why Not?, Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin, Germany

SELECTED AWARDS & PROJECTS

Ampersand Foundation Fellowship, New York 2024

Parabolas, public art commission, Meta Foundation, Johannesburg 2022

Wallpaper* magazine, April 2020 limited edition cover by Michael MacGarry, featuring Maputo, Mozambique 2050 – from the artist's 100 Suns series. 

Official Selection: Sea of Ash for Film Africa - the Royal African Society’s annual film festival - screened in competition for the Baobab Award for Best Short Film, 2016

Jury Award: Special Mention for Sea of Ash, 14th International Festival Zeichen der Nacht, Bangkok, Thailand 2016

El Ray Award -­ Excellence in Narrative Short Filmmaking, Barcelona Film Festival 2015

Jury Award: Special Mention for Excuse me while I disappear, 13th International Festival Signes de Nuit, Paris, France, 2015

Finalist Huysmans Young African Filmmaker Award 2015

Gordon Institute of Performing and Creative Arts Fellowship 2012

Standard Bank Young Artist Award (Visual Art) 2010

MTN New Contemporaries Award 2008

Full Merit Scholarship, University of the Witwatersrand 2005

National Arts Council Individual Artist Grant 2004

Dean’s Commendation 2000

COLLECTIONS

Iziko South African National Gallery Seattle Art Museum

Gordon Schachat Collection Hollard Collection

Wits Art Museum

South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) The New Church Museum

Standard Bank of South Africa Johannesburg Art Gallery Numerous private collections