BIOGRAPHY

(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.