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Working across textile, sculpture and performance, South African artist Igshaan Adams transforms overlooked materials from daily life in Cape Town into powerful reflections on notions of collective belonging, resilience and care. Igshaan Adams: Between Then and Now will present newly commissioned and existing works, including monumental tapestries adorned with beads, chains, rope and ribbons, as well as a new large-scale environmental installation of his dance prints. Drawing on Adams’ personal memories informed by apartheid-era South Africa, the exhibition will also feature site-specific suspended sculptures examining the impact of lived experiences on the human psyche, with a particular emphasis on the healing potential of movement and dance. Inspired by Adams’ communal values and studio environment, this presentation will showcase a selection of textile swatches from the artist’s studio, which visitors will be invited to touch and explore. Through a collaborative practice, Adams’ work positions art as a vehicle for healing and connecting – something vital in our current era. Comprising more than sixty works produced over the past decade until today, Igshaan Adams: Between Then and Now – organised by Mudam and The Hepworth Wakefield in collaboration with ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum – is the largest exhibition of the artist’s work to date.
Biography
Igshaan Adams (1982, Cape Town) has held solo exhibitions internationally, including at ARoS Aarhus Art Museum (2025); The Hepworth Wakefield (2024); Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2024); The Art Institute of Chicago (2022); Kunsthalle Zürich (2022); Hayward Gallery, London (2021); Akershus Kunstsenter, Oslo (2019); and The Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town (2018). He has participated in numerous group exhibitions and biennials, including the Bukhara Biennial, Uzbekistan (2025); Space of Togetherness at NEON, National Theatre of Greece Drama School, Athens (2024); the Barbican Centre, London (2024); the 35th Bienal de São Paulo (2023); the Islamic Arts Biennale, Jeddah (2023); the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (2022); the 23rd Triennale Milano (2021); Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel (2021); and the Pérez Art Museum Miami (2020), among many others. His work is held in the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Speed Art Museum, Louisville; Tate, London; The Hepworth Wakefield; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Denmark; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; The Art Institute of Chicago; Baltimore Museum of Art; The Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston; Inhotim, Brazil; Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Standard Bank Collection, Johannesburg; and the University of Cape Town. In 2018, he was awarded the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art.
Igshaan Adams lives and works in Cape Town.