(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 the Gordon Institute of Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) at University of Cape Town

2004   

MFA (Distinction), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

2000   

BFA (Cum Laude, Dean’s List), Technikon Natal, Durban, South Africa

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024    

The business called show, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

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, Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg.

2015

There’s an Animal Inside.

2013

As Above, So Below.

Centre for Democracy, Cape Town.

2012

The Other Half.

STEVENSON, Cape Town.

2011

Entertainment.

STEVENSON, Johannesburg.

2010

END GAME.

Standard Bank Young Artist Award 2010 (Visual Arts) Monument Gallery, Grahamstown.

This is your world in which we grow, and we will grow to hate you.

STEVENSON, Johannesburg.

2008

When enough people start saying the same thing.

Art Extra, Johannesburg

2004

Or Until the World Improves

The Premises Gallery, Johannesburg

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2025

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

2024

Inner Sanctum, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa 

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

Marvellous Realism, curated by Ekow Oshun, KT Wong Foundation, Fotografiska, Shanghai, China

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, 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, Nürnberg, 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

Utopia/Dystopia, MAAT, Lisbon, Portugal

2015

Bronze, Steel &  Stone, Everard Read, Johannesburg

The Film Will Always Be You, TATE Modern, London

FNB Joburg Art Fair

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

Pop Goes the Revolution

The New Church, Cape Town

2013

'MINE' – MC2a – MIGRATIONS CULTURELLES

Aquitaine Afriques, Bordeaux, France

2012

Impakt Festival 2012

CBKU

Utrecht, The Netherlands

Making Way: Contemporary Art from South Africa and China

Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg

2011

Johannesburg Contested Terrains

Tate Modern, London

ARS 11

Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art Helsinki, Finland

2010

Ampersand

Damiler Art Collection, Berlin

Life Less Ordinary: Performance and display in South African art

Ffotogallery, Cardiff, U.K.

2009

Life Less Ordinary: Performance and display in South African art

Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham

Why Not?

Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin, Germany

AWARDS

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 Huysmans Young African Filmmaker Award 2015 -­” Finalist

Gordon Institute of Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) Fellowship 2012 Standard Bank Young Artist Award 2010 (Visual Art)

MTN New Contemporaries Award, 2008 -­” Finalist

Full Merit Scholarship, University of the Witwatersrand, 2005 National Arts Council Individual Artist Grant, 2004

Cum Laude, 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.