FIRST PRIZE WINNER: CLARK SUE
Pretoria | Gauteng

Sue Clark is a visual arts student currently in her third year at UNISA. The qualified architect who lives and works in Tshwane changed from architecture to visual arts after 25 years in the architectural field.

Her work revolves around the built environment of local cities and how they are evolving. Through this work, she hopes to encourage people to engage with the cities they live in and contribute to their evolution positively, as opposed to being consumed by pessimism and defeatism.

As a resident of Pretoria/Tshwane, Sue’s work has centred around this city. She is fascinated by the predominantly male public statues in the city. Her current work layers the memories represented in public art and buildings with contemporary imagery to imagine its future potential.

An almost archaeological investigation is augmented by visual research through experimental works in various media, including drawing, collage, stitching, animation, and augmented reality. Her work creates a visual balance between growth and decay, memory and forgetting, the past, the present and the city’s imagined future

EKURHULENI PRIZE WINNER: MOFOKENG THABO TREASURE
Katlehong (Ekurhuleni South) | Gauteng

Thabo Treasure Mofokeng was born in 1986 in Katlehong in Ekurhuleni. He discovered his passion for art at the tender age of eight doing mural paintings in primary school and sharpened his skills by using school papers to create cars, planes and houses as his toys.

While in high school he continued to develop his art skills by drawing cartoons to understand human figures and anatomy and drew portraits as a way of creating an income to feed himself. After completing Matric Thabo trained at Artist Proof Studio from 2007 to 2009 and graduated as a professional printmaker, learning to work with different techniques such as dry-point, etching, lino-cut and silkscreen. Mofokeng recently specialised in acrylic paints, charcoal, pastels and objects.

My concept is based on the connection between the Outer man (which is our physical being) and the Inner man (which is our souls/spiritual being). I strongly believe what is true, valuable and precious lies within a man and his dreams are from within. My painted shadows portray a human soul and his/her free will to shape it or paint it the way he/she likes. Everyone is an artist of his/her soul - young or old.

All the greatness that has been achieved and is still to be achieved in this life and a life to come starts from within and becomes manifested to the world. The greatness, success, joy, and peace that we search for are closer than we think. All we need is to believe that we already have it in us. Our souls carry the truth of who we are from birth till death. All the successes and failures of this world depend on what we manifest from within us. If our souls are nurtured properly then our brighter future is assured.

AUGUST HOUSE EMERGING RESIDENCY ARTIST AWARD WINNER: DLAMINI LWANDO
Engcobo (and grew up in Phillippi, Cape Town) | Eastern Cape

Born in the Eastern Cape Lwando Dlamini moved to the Western Cape as a young child and currently lives and works between Cape Town and Johannesburg. Working with oil paints and mixed media his creations are based on life experiences.

In his works Dlamini constantly reinforces awareness of the fragility of the human body using bold colour and texture as he meditates on this potential for brokenness with a particular focus on memory loss.

‘In his work, Dlamini layers paint thickly onto the surface so that brushstrokes and palette knife marks are visible. This has become a distinct feature of his oeuvre. Dlamini highlights his commitment to testing the boundaries of his working mediums ... we are confronted with discomfort - images and figures that are curved and distorted, with certain features (eyes and lips in particular) exaggerated and others (nose and ears) minimised. These are extraordinary images not concerned with simple ideas of beauty — but rather, they are an investigation of fragility and the strangeness of life’ - Nkgopoleng Moloi

PAINTING MERIT AWARD WINNER: MAIMELA PERCY
Winterveld (North of Pretoria) | Gauteng

Percy Maimela (1985) is a self-taught artist born in Pretoria, South Africa. He is currently working at August House Studios in Johannesburg. Maimela discovered his love for art during his early childhood. In 2014, while working as a sales assistant, Maimela decided to pursue art as a part-time business making portraits for commission.

By 2016 he became a full-time practitioner in art and was introduced to conceptual and investment art. His preferred mediums include charcoal drawing, painting and some traditional art forms, but he also experiments with untraditional mediums like salt, maize meal, ashes and coffee grounds which he holds a Guinness World Record for. This technique Maimela discovered during his retail employment in 2014.

The mask in Maimela’s work is a universal totem that represents our past, present and future. The fingerprint lines are a symbol of DNA and culture we inherited long before we are created.

The physical form of the mask is a showcase of the presence and the aerodynamic shape is a symbol of the future; this is to show the possibility that one can become what we desire to be. This mask also aims to remove us from a sense of individuality for one to know that my story is far bigger than me and my current situation. This is how legacies are created.

SCULPTURE MERIT AWARD WINNER: MOKGOMME RAMOTOANA RICHARD
Indermark | Limpopo

Ramotoana Richard Mokgomme was born and raised in Limpopo province at a place called Indermark. He was first introduced to art at five years of age. His interest grew when he started primary school at Kgobobokana School. Ramotoana’s art career was nurtured under his former art teacher and mentor Simon Moshapo. In 2009 he relocated to Johannesburg where he attended part-time art classes at the Johannesburg Art Gallery.

Ramotoana Richard Mokgomme was born and raised in Limpopo province at a place called Indermark. He was first introduced to art at five years of age. His interest grew when he started primary school at Kgobobokana School. Ramotoana’s art career was nurtured under his former art teacher and mentor Simon Moshapo. In 2009 he relocated to Johannesburg where he attended part-time art classes at the Johannesburg Art Gallery.

In this installation and sculpture, Ramotoana explores the concepts of tracing identity, the issue of identity and belonging. Ramotoana collected references and information from different villages (Undermark, Tresteng and Ga-Maponto).

What is fascinating about the process of composing this body of work, Ramotoana explored paintings, collages and fitting sculptures using bones from defecating cows in his birth village. The process allows us an opportunity to discuss environmental and identity issues given that he found five dead cows in the same area that had died after eating plastic and disposable nappies.

The issue of land is quite distorted and political because it doesn’t only harm human beings but also animals. This body of work will therefore help us to engage and unpack the thorny issues of land, migration and origin that confront our true identity.

MULTIMEDIA MERIT AWARD WINNER: KHOOSAL HEMALI
Johannesburg | Gauteng

Hemali Khoosal is a multidisciplinary artist and researcher from Johannesburg. This artist graduated with distinction from Wits School of Art, completing part of her honours degree in an exchange programme in the Scenography Department at Haute École Des Arts du Rhin, Strasbourg. She was runner-up in the Wits Young Artist Award and received the Giovanna Milner Award. Khoosal also won the Emerging Artist’s Portraiture Development Programme, was a finalist for Sasol New Signatures and the ANNA Award, a nominee for the Video Art Awards in Italy, and a recipient of the International Spoleto Award. Additionally, she has worked in collections including the Centro Luigi di Sarro; the Jack Ginsberg Collection; and Keleketla! Library.

Most recently, Khoosal was awarded a three-month residency at the Spinnerei in Leipzig, Germany, by the Centre for The Less Good Idea & David Krut Projects. Prior to that, she was awarded the Sam Nhlengethwa Young Women Award by the Bag Factory where she had a one-year residency and two-person exhibition: In Passing. She is now pursuing her Master’s in Film at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Through its distinctive soundscape, Rhythms of Fordsburg (2021, 1’9’’) hints at cultural influences that are layered and mixed. The video experiments with hands at play and work: making paan and laffa, and participating in games like Bao and cards. Created during a residency at the Bag Factory, the artist was inspired by the daily rhythms of people moving in and out of the shops and streets, and by the sonic experience of being there, which reminded Khoosal of her childhood home in Lenasia.

WORK ON PAPER MERIT AWARD WINNER: McGURK MARIAPAOLA
Springs (Ekurhuleni East) | Gauteng

Mariapaola McGurk has over 20 years of experience in the creative economy of South Africa. She is a practitioner, researcher, lecturer and consultant who strives to contribute positively to the growth and development of this diverse and exciting sector while pursuing her visual arts practise.

‘We are not linear and each of us has a variety of passions, skills and experiences to share and contribute to our society. I gain great pleasure in lecturing, research and consultancy work while also continually developing my work as a b. 1980, visual artist’ – McGurk

From Control to Chaos #1 & #2 were works sketched many years ago in my visual diary. They were developed into a diptych in 2020 when the world was in complete chaos and their relevance was so evident. I created this concept while pregnant with one of my three children. From complete control and safety our children leave us to enter this world full of complexities and chaos.

This work speaks to the realities every mother goes through and the awareness of the fragility of each child entering that chaos. The work is papercut and the child within the womb is cut 1mm thick all around - the fragility of the child is represented through the fragility of the paper and the work.

HONORABLE MENTION AWARD: MAZIBUKO PAULINE
Soweto | Gauteng

Pauline Mazibuko was born in 1972 and completed her matric in 1989, then furthered her studies in fine arts at Funda Community College. After completing the threeyear programme, she went to Artist Proof Studio to specialise in printmaking. During this time Mazibuko worked part-time in drawing and printmaking.

Through her performance she was awarded a bursary to study Art Teacher Training Programme at Wits University and HTS (which partnered with the MAP SETA). In 2003 she worked at Sibikwa Community Theatre teaching drawing, printmaking, painting and sculpture; while pursuing her art throughout.

For the past 14 years Mazibuko’s work has mainly focused on unhealthy issues affecting women and children, and how women are trying to gain control of their selfconfidence in everyday life.

In 2005 Pauline’s works started to focus on personal issues that are linked to her [Ancestral calling].