Madeleine Ruggi (b.1991) is an artist working in London, UK. Ruggi’s work seek to grasp her own body’s position among infrastructures of trade and processing that are often concealed to consumers of the global West. She uses conversations, site visits, radio communications, field recordings, found and gifted objects as well as steel, collage and print to ask how she can responsibly engage with the world in which she lives, understanding how decisions in her immediate setting may impact the world at large.
Her often ordinary and small-scale materials — a slice of ship exterior, a VHF radio scanner or a piece of wire mesh fencing—literally embody a fragment of gargantuan, often unseen industries. These act as departure points for Ruggi to confront the cycle of trade and consumption that she too is inextricably involved in. Her direct, bodily engagement with these loaded materials connects states of desire with demand, as well as with the macro-constructs of mediation and power that serve them.
Madeleine has a BA from Central Saint Martins, London and an MFA from Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam. Her work has been presented at Tate Modern, London; Camden Arts Centre, London; Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam; Whitstable Biennale, Whitstable; European Cultural Centre, Venice; Guest Projects, London amongst others. She has been awarded the Gilbert Bayes Award from the Royal Society of Sculptors and has received grants from Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst and The Eaton Fund. Residencies Madeleine has participated in include Camden Arts Centre, London; Scottish Sculpture Workshop, Lumsden; and POP Adriatico, Trieste. Her work has been featured in publications such as Frieze, Metropolis M, POP Adriatico and The Guardian.
Email: madeleineruggi(at)gmail.com
SOLO + DUO EXHIBITIONS
La lingua me defendi
Varco Momumentale VII, Porto Vecchio, Trieste, 2024
The gateway as a point of encounter
[duo show with María José Crespo], PuntWG, Amsterdam, 2023
TRANSMISSION—CARRIER
commission, Whitstable Biennale, June 2022
MINIMUM IS MAXIMUM IN DRAG
inNeoss, London, 2019
LIMINAL
inNeoss, London, 2017
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
This Is Reality and It Was But One Chat Away
Ubik, Rotterdam, July 2022
I Must Be Living Twice
curated by Shimmer, Palazzo Mora, European Cultural Centre, Venice, April - November, 2022
A High Hang
Eccleston Project Space, London, 2019
Nourishment
curated by Anousha Payne, Guest Projects, London, 2019
Forced Collaboration
[online], Forced Collaboration, 2018
12ø Collective,
[online], 12ø, 2018
PSEUDO-CREM
The Vinyl Library, London, 2014
Print/3
Arcane Gallery, London, 2014
Artists in Residence
Camden Arts Centre, London, 2012
Resembling Ham in Taste
Mori and Stein Gallery, London, 2012
COMM
Bussey Building Art Space, London, 2012
AWARDS + GRANTS
Gilbert Bayes Award, Royal Society of Sculptors, 2024
Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, 2023
The Eaton Fund, 2023
RESIDENCIES
Robert Rauschenberg Foundation
New York, September - October 2025 (forthcoming)
Scottish Sculpture Workshop
Lumsden, September - October 2024
POP Adriatico
Trieste, May - June 2024
Camden Arts Centre, with Central Saint MartinsLondon, 2012
TALKS // PERFORMANCES
Double edged-zones: waterways, borderscapes and corporeal limits [performance presentation by Madeleine Ruggi and María José Crespo], The Institute for Post-Natural Studies and HEAD, Geneva, 2024
The gateway as a point of encounter [performance presentation by Madeleine Ruggi and María José Crespo], PuntWG, Amsterdam, 2023
Witnessing as a method of getting through gateways [performance presentation by Madeleine Ruggi and María José Crespo], Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam, 2022
Proxyerotics [performance presentation by Madeleine Ruggi and María José Crespo], Royal College of Art, London, 2021
Up Hill Down Hall: An Indoor Carnival [collaborative sound performance with Georgia Gendall], Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London, 2014
SELECTED PRESS + PUBLICATIONS
POP ADRIATICO – Porto Osservatorio Partecipato
November 2024, La Lingua Me Defendi, a sound installation for the Porto Vecchio di Trieste, by Madeleine Ruggi, read here
Frieze
13 June 2022, The Elemental Pull of Whitstable Biennale, by Chris Sharratt, read here
MetropolisM
25 July 2022, Graduation Shows - Piet Zwart Institute, by Jorne Vriens, read here
The Guardian
21 May 2014, Central Saint Martins Degree Show, read here
EDUCATION
2020 - 2022 MA Fine Art
Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academie, Rotterdam
2010 - 2014 BA (Honours) Fine Art
Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London
2012 - 2013 Diploma in Professional Studies
Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London
2009 - 2010 Foundation Fine Art
Byam Shaw School of Art, Central Saint Martins, London