BIOGRAPHY
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
2021
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
Against Interpretation, Everard Read, London, UK
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