Gush was born in 1981 in Pietermaritzburg, and lives in Johannesburg.

He completed postgraduate studies at the Hoger Instituut van Schone Kunsten in Ghent, Belgium in 2008, and was a 2011 Fellow at the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts, University of Cape Town. Gush was also the recipient of the 2016 Tierney Fellowship at Wits University.

Solo shows include Simon Gush: Sala10, Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico (2020); Al final del trabajo, Ex Teresa Arte Actual, Mexico (2018); After Work, Galerie Jette Rudolph in Berlin (2015); 9 o'clock, National Arts Festival, Makhanda (2015); Red, Goethe-Institut, Johannesburg (2014), Anne Bryant Art Gallery, East London; ArtEC in Port Elizabeth (2015); 1st and 3rd, Galerie West, The Hague, and 4 for Four, S.M.A.K., Ghent (both 2010); in addition to nine solo exhibitions at Stevenson, Cape Town and Johannesburg, between 2007 and 2022.

Group shows include Clocking Out: Time Beyond Management, Artists Space, New York, USA (2023); Sharjah Film Platform 3, Sharjah Art Foundation (2020); Every Leaf Is an Eye, Göteborgs Konsthall, Sweden (2019); Buiten, S.M.A.K, Ghent, (2018); African Metropolis. An Imaginary City, MAXXI, Rome (2018); Of Traps and Tropes, 1^st  Kerkennah International Festival of Photography and Visual arts, Tunisia (2018); Affinities, or The Weight of Cinema, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC (2018); Deconstructed Spaces, Surveyed Memories, 11th Rencontres de Bamako, Mali (2017); Recent Histories: New Photography from Africa, Walther Collection in Neu-Ulm, Germany and New York, USA (2017); Afriques Capitales, La Villette and Paris (2017); I Love You Sugar Kane, Institute of Contemporary Art Indian Ocean, Mauritius (2016); While You Were Out, Museum of Fine Arts Boston (2015); Artists Engaged? Maybe, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon (2014); My Joburg, La Maison Rouge, Paris, and Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden (2013); Halakasha, Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg in 2010; and 1910-2010: From Pierneef to Gugulective, Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town in 2010; among others. Gush has been included in biennales such as the Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie, Heidelberg, Ludwigshafen and Mannheim (2017); Dak’Art, Senegal (2016); Bamako, Mali (2015); Montevideo, Uruguay (2014); and Luleå, Sweden (2009).

His films have been shown in museums and film festivals including, Avant Noir, 1&2, BOZAR, Brussels (2019); Avant Noir, vol 3, ICA, London (2017); Focus South Africa, Vision du Réel, Nyon (2017); International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen (2017); Les Rencontres Internationales, Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin (2013) Palais De Tokyo, Paris (2013); The Film Will Always Be You: South African Artists On Screen, Tate Modern, London (2015) and the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam (2015).

Gush was awarded the Jury Prize at the Bamako Encounters Biennale in 2015.

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