With a career spanning over four decades, Ruth Watson is a highly respected artist and writer. Her interdisciplinary practice—encompassing photography, video, sculpture, and installation—has long been concerned with cartography and other forms of mapping. Through her re-orienting, Watson’s work—layered up and stripped down– speaks to everything from mobility, wealth and power, to memory, desire and value.
Ruth Watson (b. Darfield, 1962) currently lives and works in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. She has spent extended periods living and working in Australia and Germany, as well as here in Aotearoa. Her work has been show extensively here and abroad, with highlights including: Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Frankfurter Kunstverein; Asia Society Gallery, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb; The Biennale of Sydney; MCA, Sydney; QAGOMA, Brisbane; Te Papa Tongawera Museum of New Zealand; and Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. She has been the recipient of the Olivia Spencer-Bower Art Award, The Fulbright NZ Scholar–Visual Arts Award, The Washington D.C. based Ristow Prize for an essay in cartographic history. Her work is held in the collections of Te Papa Tongawera Museum of New Zealand, National Gallery of Australia, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu, National Library of New Zealand, University of Auckland, University of Canterbury, well as various private and corporate collections across Aotearoa, Australia and Europe.