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Exhibition

Public Intimacy

Art and Other Ordinary Acts in South Africa
February 21–June 29, 2014

Disrupting expected images of South Africa, the 25 contemporary artists and collectives featured in Public Intimacy eloquently explore the poetics and politics of the everyday. This collaboration with Yerba Buena Center for the Arts presents pictures from SFMOMA’s collection of South African photography alongside works in a broad range of media, including video, painting, sculpture, performance, and publications — most made in the last five years, and many on view for the first time on the West Coast. Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of democracy in South Africa, Public Intimacy reveals the nuances of human interaction in a country still undergoing significant change, vividly showing public life there in a more complex light.

Public Intimacy includes works by Ian Berry, Ernest Cole, David Goldblatt, Handspring Puppet Company, Nicholas Hlobo, ijusi (Garth Walker), Anton Kannemeyer, William Kentridge, Donna Kukama, Terry Kurgan, Sabelo Mlangeni, Santu Mofokeng, Billy Monk, Zanele Muholi, Sello Pesa and Vaughn Sadie with Ntsoana Contemporary Dance Theatre, Cameron Platter, Lindeka Qampi, Jo Ractliffe, Athi-Patra Ruga, Berni Searle, Penny Siopis, Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse, and Kemang Wa Lehulere.

Public Intimacy: Art and Other Ordinary Acts in South Africa is jointly organized by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Presenting support is generously provided by the Evelyn D. Haas Exhibition Fund at SFMOMA. Major support is provided by the James C. Hormel and Michael P. Nguyen Endowment Fund at SFMOMA. Generous support is provided by Meridee Moore and Kevin King, Mike Wilkins and Sheila Duignan, the Betlach Family Foundation, the YBCA Creative Ventures Council, Concepción and Irwin Federman, the National Endowment for the Arts, the George Frederick Jewett Foundation, Ronald W. Garrity, Kate and Wes Mitchell, and the Yerba Buena Community Benefit District.

Walter & Elise Haas Fund logo National Endowment for the Arts Yerba Buena Community Benefit District

Media Sponsor

San Francisco Chronicle