ABOUT

Ralph Ziman’s practice is motivated by a sense of social responsibility toward global politics. Using imagery that is at once vivid and dark, he comments on serious issues such as life under apartheid, the arms trade and trophy hunting. His work extends across a variety of media, including film, photography, public intervention, sculpture, and installation.

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Recently, the artist has turned to salvaging and manipulating historical materials related to pan-African history in order to bear upon global politics. Drawing from his experience growing up in apartheid South Africa, Ziman’s work interrogates human rights issues such as apartheid, the over-militarization of police, and state violence. The artist’s The Casspir Project (2016), presented in a group exhibition at the National Gallery in Cape Town, South Africa, is composed of a repurposed military vehicle known as the Casspir. Post-apartheid, Casspirs were decommissioned in South Africa, their hulls left to rust, a relic of the past better forgotten, that is except for the ones that were sold to the United States during the Iraq war years, and later, to local police forces.

Ziman’s Casspir, entitled SPOEK 1, is covered in elaborate, brightly-colored panels of glass beadwork made in traditional patterns and completed by artisans from Zimbabwe and the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. In the age of Ferguson and Black Lives Matter, the Casspir has returned as a poltergeist from the past that continues to haunt us in the present. Ziman’s recent sculpture and installation work challenges the viewer to confront how cultural memory, often entangled in violence, may bear upon the contemporary.

After showing in Capetown, SPOEK 1 was exhibited at venues throughout Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2017, including The Turbine Art Fair and The Melrose Gallery. In 2018, the Casspir arrived in the United States where it was the Special Projects selection at 1-54, the Contemporary African Art Fair, in New York. It remained on view at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, New York, throughout the summer of 2018. In February 2019, The Casspir Project made its West Coast debut at an exhibition hosted by The Rendon Gallery in Los Angeles, California. SPOEK 1 along with different series within the Casspir Project have been curated into art fairs and public spaces across the United States, drawing engagement from thousands of people of all ages. 

Prior to his work as a visual artist, Ziman’s early film Hearts and Minds (1995) gained international attention as the first independent South African feature film to be completed after apartheid, premiering at the Berlin and Montreal International Film Festivals. His film Jerusalema reached critical acclaim as South Africa’s entry to the 2008 Academy Award Foreign Language section.

RALPH ZIMAN CV

SOLO EXHIBITIONS 

2024 

  • The Casspir Project. Emma Darnell Aviation Museum, Atlanta, GA | Oct- Nov 2024
  • The Casspir Project. Atlanta Art Fair, Atlanta, GA  | October 2024
  • The Casspir Project. Atlanta Contemporary Museum, Atlanta, GA | September 2024
  • The Casspir Project. RailSpur, Seattle, WA | August 2024
  • The Casspir Project. TASWIRA, Seattle WA | August 2024
  • The Casspir Project (Special Projects). The Museum of Flight, Seattle, WA | August 2024 
  • The Casspir Project. Seattle Art Fair, Seattle, WA | July 2024

2020 

  • Photo London Digital | Oct 2020
  • The Casspir Project, San Francisco Tribal & Textile Art Show, San Francisco, CA | February 2020

2019 

  • The Casspir Project, PULSE Art Fair, Miami, FL | December 2019 
  • The Casspir Project, The Rendon Gallery, Los Angeles, CA | Feb-Mar 2019 

2018

  • 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY | May 2018

2016 

  • Bones. C.A.V.E. Gallery, Venice, CA | February 2016 
  • Worlds Collide. C.A.V.E. Gallery, Venice. CA. Collaborative works with Bisco Smith | Dec 2015-Jan 2016

2015 

  • Scope Miami Beach, Miami, FL | December 2015
  • Photo LA, The REEF/LA Mart, Los Angeles, CA 
  • Photo Contemporary Art Fair, Fabrik Media, Raleigh Studios, Hollywood, CA  
  • Photo LA, The REEF/LA Mart, Los Angeles, CA

2014 

  • Ghosts. Muti Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
  • Ghosts. C.A.V.E. Gallery, Venice, CA

2013 

  • Joseph Gross Gallery, Tucson, AZ | September 2013 

SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS 

2024 

  • Belltown Mural Festival, Seattle, WA | August 2024

2019

  • Facebook Artist in Residence, Facebook Headquarters, Playa Vista, CA  
  • Im Visier: Die Schusswaffe in Kunst und Design, Forum Schlossplatz, Aarau, Switzerland 

2018   

  • Ligne de Mire / Line of Sight. MUDAC, Lausanne, France 
  • Hidden Rooms. Art At The Rendon, Los Angeles, CA | June 2018

2017

  • Women’s Work. Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, SA | January 2017
  • New Year Show. C.A.V.E. Gallery, Venice, CA | January 2017 

2016     

  • NO Lab. Istanbul, Turkey | September 2016
  • FITE Rebels. Museum Bargoin, France | September 2016
  • Street Value. Treason Gallery, Seattle, WA | August 2016
  • Rites of Passage. Sulger Buel Lovell Gallery, Cape Town, London | June 2016
  • Eye4eye. TPG2 Gallery, San Diego, CA

2015

  • DIS PLACE. Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, Brooklyn, NY | Oct 2015- Jan 2016
  • Eye for an Eye. Think Tank Gallery, | November 2015 
  • Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa 
    • Lucky 7 – Seven Year Anniversary Show. C.A.V.E. Gallery, Venice, CA
  • Los Angeles Art Fair, Los Angeles Convention Center, Bruce Lurie Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 
  • Beyond Eden. LA Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 
  • FNB Joburg Art Fair, Sandton Convention Centre, Sulger-Buel Lovell Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa 
  • Andy Goes Street. Samara Gallery, Houston, TX 

2014

  • Off Africa. Sulger-Buel Lovell Gallery, London, England 
  • FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg, ZA 
  • Andy Goes Street. curated by Karen Bystedt, Bruce Lurie Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2013 

  • Deck The Walls. C.A.V.E. Gallery, Venice, CA

FILMOGRAPHY 

2018 Freedom  

2014 Kite  

2008 Gangster’s Paradise: Jerusalema  

2001 The Zookeeper  

1995 Hearts & Minds

Ralph Ziman was born in 1963 in Johannesburg, South Africa, and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at The Rendon Gallery in Los Angeles; Joseph Gross Gallery in Tucson, Arizona; and C.A.V.E. Gallery in Venice, California, as well as group exhibitions at the  National Gallery in Cape Town, South Africa; Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts in Brooklyn, NY; the FNB Art Fair in Johannesburg, South Africa; MUDAC in Lausanne, France; and Forum Schlossplatz in Aarau, Switzerland, among others.