WILMA CRUISE

(b. 1945 Johannesburg, South Africa)

Wilma Cruise’s work explores the interaction between humankind and animals. In her doctoral thesis, ‘Thinking with Animals: An exploration of the animal turn through art making and metaphor’, she explores the conditions of communication between the human animal and other animals – a condition that transcends the spoken (human) word. Communication depends on semiotics, body language and prosody (tone of voice). She maintains it is not the animals who cannot speak (and therefore cannot reason), but us who cannot listen. If we do bother to listen, conditions of empathy are created between all animal kind, as she so often demonstrates in her baboon sculptures.

As the 2023 Woordfees festival artist Cruise exhibited The Animal – what a word! The title is derived from Jacques Derrida’s exposition The animal – Therefore I am. Ironically, the exhibition explored the condition of muteness between human and animal via the extensive use of the word.

Cruise’s recent shows include Coterie of Cats at Tokara (2022-2023) and 1984: Fight Or Flight? Apocalypse Now? at Everard Read in Cape Town (2020). ‘The Alice Sequence’, a suite of seven exhibitions that challenged human exceptionalism by drawing analogies between our world and the rabbit hole world of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, formed the basis of her doctoral exhibitions: The 8th Square and Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast (2016).

Wilma Cruise has completed a number of public works, including the National Monument to the Women of South Africa at the Union Buildings, Pretoria (in collaboration with Marcus Holmes); The Memorial to the Slaves (in collaboration with Gavin Younge), in Cape Town; and The Right to Life at the Constitutional Court, in Johannesburg.

Her work is represented in public, corporate and private collections. She has participated in the Havana Biennale, the Florence Biennale and the 7th Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale in Seoul, Korea. Cruise is a fellow of Ceramics South Africa and writes extensively in the field of ceramics.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023 The Animal – what a word!, Woordfees Festival Artist, Potchefstroom, South Africa 

2022 Coterie of Cats, Tokara, Stellenbosch, South Africa

2020 1984 Fight or Flight: Apocalypse Now?, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2019 Some are More Equal than Others, RK Contemporary, Riebeek Kasteel, South Africa

2016 Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast, Gallery University Stellenbosch, South Africa

2016 The 8th Square, Cavalli Gallery, Cavalli Wine Estate, Somerset West, South Africa

2015  Advice from a Caterpillar,  David Krut Projects, Arts on Main, Johannesburg, South Africa

         Clay Museum, Cape Town, South Africa

2014   Menagerie at Tokara, The sculpture garden at Tokara Wine Estate, Curated by Ilse Schemers

2013/4 Will you, won’t you, will you join the dance? National Arts Festival, Makhanda & Oliewenhuis Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa

2012  The Alice Diaries, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2011 Wilma Cruise at Wildekrans Country House, Houw Hoek, South Africa

        Alice and The Animals, University of the North West Art Gallery, Potchefstroom, South Africa

        The Animals in Alice,  iArt Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2008 SPLIT LON.NY.JHB. David Krut Projects, Johannesburg, South Africa

2006 Cruise at Krut: Wilma Cruise Works on Paper, Johannesburg, South Africa

2001  HYS. SUSP. text/image/sound, Millennium Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa

2000 rapRACK, Goodman, Johannesburg, South Africa 

1998  Mirroring ourselves (with Regi Bardavid), AVA, Cape Town, South Africa

1997  Continuous projection,  African Window Museum, Pretoria, South Africa

1996  John’s wife, First Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa 

1993  Nicholas - October 1990, Goodman, Johannesburg, South Africa

1991 Jacobs and Liknaitzky Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

1990  Untitled: (everlasting nothingness made visible), Goodman, Johannesburg, South Africa

1987  Portrait of my friends and other animals, Beuster-Skolimowski Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa

1985 Sylvester in September, Beuster-Skolimowski Gallery, South Africa

1985  All those lonely people, Things Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1983  Collection, Beuster-Skolimowski Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023
Director’s Selection, Everard Read, London, UK
Summer, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

2022
Spring Show, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
Oasis: 25th anniversary group show, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa 

2020
Bronze, Steel, Stone & Bone, Everard Read, London, UK
Gallery Opening Exhibition, Everard Read at Leeu Estates, Franschhoek, South Africa
Against Interpretation, Everard Read, London, UK 
On Being, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

2016
Opening Exhibition, Everard Read, London, UK

2015
(In) The Nature of Things, FynArts Festival, Hermanus, South Africa
Slow Violence, GUS, Stellenbosch, South Africa
The Princess in the Veld, curated by Adele Adendorff, Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees, Oudtshoorn, South Africa
Carved Relief Print Group Exhibition, David Krut Projects Johannesburg, South Africa
Summer Sculpture III, Everard Read, Mt Nelson, Cape Town, South Africa

2014
Play, Nirox, Johannesburg, South Africa

2013
7th Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale, Korea 
Everard Read Centenary Exhibition, Johannesburg, South Africa
Re-envisioning the Anglo-Boer (South African) War, curated by Angela de Jesus and Janine Allen, Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery & The War Museum of the Boer Republics,Bloemfontein, South Africa
Figuration and Negation, Fried Contemporary, Pretoria, South Africa

2012
The Rainbow Nation: Contemporary Sculpture from South Africa, Beelden aan Zee and Lange Voorhout, The Hague, Netherlands

2011
Selected Editions and Works on Paper, David Krut Projects, Cape Town, South Africa
Horse: Multiple Views of a Singular Beast, curated by Ricky Burnett, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
Wilma Cruise, Frikkie Eksteen and Robert Hodgins, curated by Basie Botha, Trent Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa

2010
HERITAGE 2010, curated by Albie Bailey, Paarl, South Africa
Painters Who Print, The Gallery at Grande Provence, Franschhoek, South Africa
Bodies in Transition, curated by Elfrieda Dreyer. Fried Contemporary, Pretoria, South Africa

2009
The Urban Animal, curated by Sonja Britz and Ann-Marie Tully, ABSA Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
3, with Guy du Toit and Gordon Froud, NaudeModern, Pretoria, South Africa

2008
Space Fusion Artspace, Johannesburg, South Africa

2007
Montage, Resolution Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Sculpture Garden, Grande Provence, Franschhoek, South Africa
Little Deaths, with Elfrieda Dreyer and Guy du Toit, Fried Contemporary, Pretoria, South Africa

2006
Roles/Robes, Fried Contemporary, Pretoria, South Africa
Home Sweet Home, Strijdom Gallery, George, South Africa 

2005
Works on paper: Collaborative Prints from David Krut Print Workshop, Franchise, Johannesburg, South Africa
David Krut Collaborations: 25 Years of Prints and Multiples, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown

2002
Male Order, Standard Bank National Arts Festival, touring exhibition, South Africa
Manuscript Exhibition 4, Boekenhuis, Johannesburg, South Africa

2001
Biennale Internazionale Dell’arte Contemporanea, Florence, Italy
Observations (with Guy du Toit and Dianne Victor), The Open Window Art Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa

2000
Water Colour Society of South Africa, Norscot Manor, South Africa

AS CURATOR

2004
Earthworks/Claybodies, (Deborah Bell, Wilma Cruise, Guy du Toit, Petros Gumbi), Sasol Art Museum, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

2003
Earthworks/Claybodies. (Deborah Bell, Wilma Cruise, Guy du Toit, Josephine Ghesa). Pretoria Art Museum and Standard Bank Gallery, South   Africa

1999
(Re)figuring abstraction. (Regi Bardavid, Jenni Stadler, Pascual Tarazona), Sandton Civic Gallery, , South Africa 

1995 
Space/(Dis)Place. Africus Biennale, Johannesburg, South Africa (as artist and curator)

1992 
Edges. Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa (as artist and curator)

1991 
The contemporary vessel, Karen McKerron Gallery, Bryanston, South Africa (as artist and curator) 

RESIDENCIES AND WORKSHOPS 

2009
Artspace Mentorship Programme Mentor: Wilma Cruise. Mentee: Louis Olivier 

2007
Lower Eastside Printshop, New York, USA (supported by David Krut Projects) 
Guest, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa
Guest, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa

1998
Artist-in-residence, Standard Bank Festival of Arts, Grahamstown, South Africa

1997
European contemporary art in the point of intersection between contemporary cultures and nations, Ryn, Poland
Havana Biennale, Cuba

PUBLIC AND CORPORATE COLLECTIONS
Iziko (South African National Gallery) 
Durban Art Museum 
Pretoria Art Museum 
University of South Africa Collection 
Corobrik Collection
Polokwane Municipal Collection 
Billiton 
MTN 
Constitutional Court 
Standard Bank Gallery 
Sasol 
Sasol University Museum, Stellenbosch 
University of Johannesburg 
Rand Merchant Bank 
University of the North West 
War Museum Bloemfontein
Ellerman House, Cape Town