WORDS Sean O’Toole PHOTOS Mario Todeschini, Monique du Plessis, Mark Blower, Courtesy of Simpiwe Ndzube/Stevenson, Lindsey Appolis, Elizabeth Carababus/Southern Guild, Supplied

Not long ago, a Lisa Brice painting could be bought for the price of a sensible used car with low mileage. Today, her bold canvases exploring feminist themes in dominant tones of red and blue sell at auction for prices that could cover a fleet of German cars. In March 2025, the Cape Town-born and raised painter’s 2018 work After Embah – a lurid bar scene that references Édouard Manet’s painting Plum Brandy (1877) and Nicki Minaj’s 2014 song Anaconda – sold at a London auction for £5.4-million (R121-million). In 2021, Brice’s auction record sat at R364 160.

It’s not just Brice whose star has risen dramatically over the past few years. Igshaan Adams, Jake Aikman, Georgina Gratrix, Simphiwe Ndzube and Zizipho Poswa have all – in different ways, and markets – found success. Cinga Samson, another high-flying painter, has blazed a similar trajectory, his richly symbolic portraits commanding sums that are many multiples of what his former dealer, Jonathan Garnham of Blank Projects, charged in the late 2010s when his prices nudged R150 000. In 2021, a Johannesburg artist who owned Samson’s portrait Lift Off (2017) sold it at a London auction for £321 300 (R7.15-million).

Not even tech stocks deliver these kinds of returns, which lends these stories of astonishing profit an almost mythical quality. Foresight is matched by fortune. Collectors, backing the right horse, do little but sit patiently while a version of compound interest does the rest. But the art market is fickle, and has a long memory – and an even longer list of reversals. Samson’s market has cooled noticeably since 2023. Brice, a star of the 1990s Cape Town art scene, worked in near-anonymity in London for two decades before her glorious, hard-won second act.

And for every Brice, there is a Cecil Higgs, Pieter Wenning or Hugo Naudé: once revered, canonised figures whose works now trade at prices that would alarm their early champions. Wenning, who died young and was once spoken of in the same breath as the still-coveted landscape painter JH Pierneef, has seen his auction values drift steadily downwards over decades. Higgs, an abstract painter inspired by the sea, has seen her value plummet. Naudé, a pillar of early South African Modernism, has fared little better. Their work has not changed – but taste, fashion and market appetite have.

This is where the trouble begins, because art collecting is routinely conflated with art investing, as though the two were natural bedfellows rather than awkward acquaintances forced to share a dinner table. Collecting, at its best, is about passion, curiosity and pleasure. It’s about living with objects that complicate your thinking and rearrange your emotional furniture, as legendary dealer Linda Givon once told me. Investing can also make you uncomfortable, but not for the same reason. Investing is about risk mitigation, liquidity and timing. It’s about exit strategies, even if no-one likes to say so too loudly – including those “anonymous” sellers of Samson.

Want to be a collector or investor?

Understanding the distinction between collecting and investing matters greatly – not least because the art world itself is ambivalent about money, even as it can’t survive without it. Money moves the art market, and how people are spending their money motivates other collectors. In a 2025 survey of global art collectors, art economist Clare McAndrew found that financial investment ranked the highest among six key drivers of collecting, ahead of passion, self-esteem and networking.

For as long as I’ve been writing about art, privileged insiders have been arguing the opposite: art is not an investment. Stephan Welz, the late doyen of auctioneering in South Africa, was adamant in an interview: “It doesn’t pay a dividend,” he told me in 2008. “It doesn’t bring you rent; in fact, it costs you money to keep it. It is not easily transactable; it is not sold easily; it requires someone else to dispose of it, which takes time. I prefer to call it a form of wealth, and forget about the investment aspect completely.”

Robert Mnuchin, an investment banker-turned-patrician art dealer, shared this sentiment. “The reason to buy art is because you love it, you love it, you love it,” he told The New York Times in 2013, repeating himself for emphasis as if to ward off a dangerous thought. Orlando Whitfield, the Xanax-popping friend and junior business partner of disgraced dealer Inigo Philbrick (the criminal mastermind behind the largest art fraud in American history), put it bluntly in his 2024 memoir of the affair: “I’d never recommend anyone to invest in art; I think it’s an incredibly poor idea.” Of course, a few years earlier, Whitfield was telling clients the opposite.

Is it possible to balance passion and profit? Can beauty, however you define it, yield a return when that definition is negotiable, and yesterday’s beauty just has to go? The answer, to quote a young Björk, is possibly maybe. Possibly, because art is a deeply personal pleasure. Subjectivity is risk. And maybe, because – like collectable design, wine, cars, even fashion – art is a transactional object. Understanding how the market works, where value is created, and why it evaporates is not a betrayal of the love Mnuchin spoke of. It is simply part of the grown-up conversation.

Know who sells what, and why it matters

At the most basic level, the art market is divided into two overlapping but distinct spheres: the primary market and the secondary market. The primary market is where art is introduced and sold for the first time, usually directly from the artist via a gallery. Dealers, not auctioneers, first sold the high-value paintings by Brice and Samson. The secondary market is where art is resold, most visibly through auction houses – but also via private dealers and secondary-market galleries.

In South Africa, first-class primary- market galleries such as Goodman Gallery, Stevenson and Blank Projects play a critical role in shaping artists’ careers. They invest heavily in production, scholarship, international exposure and institutional relationships. A solo exhibition at one of these big three is not simply a retail exercise; it is a reputational event, supported by access to international art fairs, collectors, curators and – fingers crossed – museum connections. Careers are, in effect, stewarded.

Auction houses such as Strauss & Co and Aspire Art operate differently. They do not represent artists. They represent objects and, by extension, the sellers who consign them. Auctions belong firmly to the secondary market, where prices are established publicly, sometimes brutally so. (This is a cause of perennial tension between primary-market dealers and auctioneers.) When a work performs well, it reinforces an artist’s market standing – like with Aspire’s run of excellent results for Gratrix’s flower still lifes, or Strauss & Co’s strong sales of Aikman’s ghostly seascapes. However, when a sale flops, and this happened uncomfortably often during the market downturn of 2023–2025, the result is recorded permanently, searchable online, and noted by dealers and collectors. A high-value work that fails to sell gets branded “burnt” by the trade.

Neither system is inherently superior. They simply serve different functions. Galleries create markets; auctions test them. And art fairs complicate things. A product of the robust primary market, art fairs emerged in the late 1960s as a collegial forum for galleries to promote new work to collectors. For South African galleries, fairs such as Art Basel and Frieze, rival conglomerates with extravagant events in major cities like Chicago, Hong Kong and London, are the big hope. They are markers of arrival, offering access to blue-chip collectors. Participation comes at a hefty price. Sales are not guaranteed. There is also a hierarchy – Paris Basel is better than Frieze London.

The late critic Robert Hughes, in his 1984 essay “Art and Money”, observed that “the twin figures of the art impresario and the art star, performing for an audience, have been with us since the 18th century”. What has changed is the scale and speed of the performance. Instagram – long recognised as a “site of discovery” and a marketplace – has compressed time. Auctions now livestream the spectacle of buying and selling. And art fairs turn connoisseurship into a contact sport. This is true even of regional fairs like FNB Art Joburg, RMB Latitudes Art Fair, and the biggie in this threesome – the Investec Cape Town Art Fair.

For smaller galleries, be it Reservoir or Vela Projects – two post-pandemic newcomers in Cape Town with ambitious programmes worth following – the Investec Cape Town Art Fair is a crucial shop window. It allows their artists to be seen alongside peers from established galleries, for example Everard Read and Southern Guild. For buyers, understanding where you are shopping is essential. Buying from a gallery, be it from their business address or at a fair, often means paying a premium for certainty, context and long- term support. Buying at auction can yield bargains, but only if you are the only one bidding and not catching a falling knife (finance speak for buying a stock or asset that is experiencing a rapid price decline). Both markets can be thrilling.

Safe bests and sensible risks

Collectors, like gamblers, only brag about their winnings, and advisors, of which there are surprisingly many, will use terms like “next big thing” and “safe bet”. Who is the next big thing in South African art? Which artist constitutes a safe bet? The second question is easier to answer.

Irma Stern remains the market’s lodestar, buoyed by renewed institutional validation and international exhibitions in the past two years. There is also a finite supply of her Zanzibar works from 1939 and 1945. Despite the emergence of kitsch meister Vladimir Tretchikoff as an auction darling – Strauss & Co sold his iconic 1955 portrait Lady from the Orient for R31.1- million in 2025 – Stern remained the auction house’s top-ranking artist. Like Stern, Pierneef’s reputation has weathered many boom-bust cycles typical of the art market, including a discrete fire sale of high-value landscapes owned by Markus Jooste that temporarily torpedoed Pierneef’s market in the early 2020s.

But Pierneef, Stern and Tretchikoff are only affordable for plutocrats. And they were around when your grandmother was young. Who are the living blue-chip artists? Sculptor Dylan Lewis (Everard Read) is highly coveted, especially his earlier cat works. William Kentridge (Goodman Gallery), with his global career, museum presence and cross-disciplinary practice, has managed the rare feat of being both canonical and contemporary. Zanele Muholi (Southern Guild), in particular their photographic self-portraits of the past decade, is another market darling. What makes these artists “safe” is not just demand, but depth. Their appeal is broad, with collectors in multiple markets.

This is also true of Capetonian Igshaan Adams, whose woven installations, sold by Blank Projects, explore themes of faith, labour and movement. Since his breakout in 2022, when he showed an enormous woven textile at the Venice Biennale, he has enjoyed a surge of international recognition. Museums and galleries – from the Art Institute of Chicago to Hepworth Wakefield in West Yorkshire – have certified his career. Galleries in London and New York now represent him. And this success means he has become unaffordable for most South Africans.

The next big thing is not whoever you say it is

Predicting the next big thing – the next Brice or Gratrix, the next Adams or Poswa – is as pointless as it is alluring. Punditry is everything here, and the following list is necessarily incomplete and subjective. Goodman Gallery represents Lindokuhle Sobekwa and Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum. Southern Guild, a growing force, shows Kamyar Bineshtarigh, Mmangaliso Nzuza and Manyaku Mashilo. Reservoir, which has a nimble business model, promotes the collaborating duo of Ben Stanwix and Xhanti Zwelendaba. Everard Read, known for its strong foundation in painting, represents Brett Charles Seiler and Boytchie (aka Phillip Richard Jannecke-Newman). And Blank Projects, which for a time has been the pre-eminent tastemaker, is doing interesting things with Asemahle Ntlonti and Gregory Olympio.

Some of these names are already big. Some still need to mature. Some of them may stall, and some may do a Brice – as in, disappear from view, only to return. The point is not to predict outcomes, but to develop the habit of attention, and to cultivate devotion. Buy with your eyes, not your spreadsheet. This being said, if investment is high among your drivers of collecting, keep a spreadsheet. Investment rules apply here. Follow the market. Subscribe to Larry’s List. Read fair reports. Listen to what collectors like Alain Servais, Louis Kotze and Stefan Simchowitz have to say. And, crucially, make friends with artists, not just dealers. Cultivate an opinion of your own. Defend your passion, irrespective of the data feeds and market results. And always – always – protect your curiosity.

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PHOTOS Supplied

Known for its distinctive model prioritising exchange, sustainability and long-term visibility, the RMB Latitudes Art Fair once again leads the way as the showcase for contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora.

“Our priority is, and always has been, to put artists first – centring their voices, supporting their long-term visibility, and building pathways for sustainable practice. RMB Latitudes reimagines how the art ecosystem can work more inclusively, for artists and for the wider cultural community,” says Lucy MacGarry, co-founder and director of Latitudes.

Deepening the continental exchange, the Fair’s 2026 international focus turns to Nigeria, shining a spotlight on one of Africa’s most dynamic creative ecosystems.

“RMB is committed to helping to build a sustainable art economy across Africa and strengthening cultural development,” says RMB’s Alison Badenhorst. “With a strong presence on the continent, we can bridge markets, drive engagement and support artists, curators, collectors and audiences to reach new local and global opportunities. Through RMB Latitudes, we aim to unlock talent and enable creativity to thrive.”

The Focus programme reflects RMB Latitudes’ model of sustained, in-country engagement. Rather than showcasing countries only during the Fair, Latitudes works with local partners in advance to stage exhibitions, build networks and create context – prioritising long-term exchange over one-off presentations.

“Through the Focus programme, we build genuine relationships on the ground,” says Latitudes’ Boitumelo Makousu. “By working within each country first – meeting artists, curators and galleries in their own contexts – we create presentations that feel collaborative and sustained rather than extractive. Nigeria has a powerful creative community, and we’re excited to deepen those exchanges and bring that energy into the Fair.”

This year, the Fair has partnered with the National Arts Council (NAC) for INDEX 2026 – a successful platform dedicated to independent and emerging artistic practices. Presented within RMB Latitudes 2026, INDEX will bring together a dynamic selection of artists from across the continent. The exhibition will include a curated presentation within the Latitudes programme, alongside artists selected through the NAC’s open-call process – creating a layered and inclusive platform for discovery.

The historic terraced grounds of Shepstone Gardens provide the perfect setting for this year’s Fair theme, ‘Oasis’, which reflects on the improbability of creative flourishing in unlikely places. The theme examines how creativity, like water, sustains and regenerates life in unexpected environments.

“The Fair embraces Johannesburg’s spirit of resilience and renewal, affirming the arts’ capacity to nourish, connect and reimagine the cultural landscape,” says Denzo Nyathi, curator and head of sales. “It also draws inspiration from the gardens that host the Fair each year – a carefully tended pocket of green within an urban context.”

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit latitudesartfair.com

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PHOTOS Courtesy of Art Forms

Exploring the dialogue between the terrestrial and language, soil of text¹ [the text of soil²] – a new multidisciplinary group exhibition at Art Forms – sets out to create a conversation between the artists, the gallery space and the earth.

At the centre of the exhibition, works by ceramic artists such as Katherine Glenday and Ben Orkin reveal how language can live in clay. Pieces by Nicholas Sithole, Madoda Fani, Ledelle Moe and Amy Rusch examine South Africa’s layered histories and landscapes. Maja Marx’s site-specific painting responds directly to the gallery’s architecture, while Katherine Glenday’s vessels enter into dialogue with Gerhard Marx’s Elsewhere. Across the space, works listen, answer and co-create meaning.

Showcasing work from 22 artists, the exhibition – curated by Jean Dreyer – guides visitors through these interconnections, showing how soil becomes a shared language binding us to one another and to the earth.

Featured artists include:

• Annegret Affolderbach
• Alistair Blair
• Jenna Burchell
• Hanien Conradie
• Madoda Fani
• Douglas Gimberg
• Katherine Glenday
• Maia Lehr-Sacks
• Gerhard Marx
• Maja Marx
• Michele Mathison
• Hennie Meyer
• Ledelle Moe
• Eva Obodo
• J.M. Otto
• Ben Orkin
• Amy Rusch
• Nicholas Sithole
• Sonja Swan
• Diana Vives
• Barbara Wildenboer

soil of text¹ [the text of soil²] is currently showing at Art Forms in the Old Biscuit Mill until 9 June 2026. | artformes.com

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PHOTOS Zanele Muholi/Southern Guild

Universally regarded as the most significant prize in photography, the Hasselblad Award recognises lifetime achievement and the medium’s transformative impact.

“It is with great pleasure that we award Zanele Muholi the 46th Hasselblad Award,” says Kalle Sanner, CEO of the Hasselblad Foundation. “In their artistic practice, Muholi combines photography with activism, creating powerful and significant works in which human rights are central. We look forward to presenting an extensive selection of their work this autumn at the Hasselblad Center.”

The visual activist, humanitarian, and art practitioner is awarded SEK 2,000,000, a gold medal, and a Hasselblad camera. The laureate will also be honoured with a major solo exhibition at the Hasselblad Center in Gothenburg, Sweden, from 10 October 2026 to 4 April 2027, alongside a week of historic events, including a formal award ceremony, an orchestral concert, a book launch, and an artist talk at Moderna Museet in Stockholm.

“This prize is not mine alone. I carry it with the many faces, names, and histories that have trusted me with their stories. From Umlazi to every space where Black LGBTQIA+ people continue to fight to exist freely, this recognition affirms that our lives are worthy of being seen not as statistics, not as shadows, but as full human beings. For years, my work has been about visibility and resistance. It has been about creating an archive so that no one can say, ‘We did not know.’ When this honour comes, I receive it on behalf of my community; those who have been erased, those who are still here, and those who are yet to see themselves reflected with dignity,” says Zanele.

A curated selection of Zanele Muholi’s work is currently on display at Magugu House in Cape Town. By Our Own Hands, presented in partnership with Southern Guild, is co-curated by Thebe Magugu alongside Contemporary African Art Specialist Julia Buchanan. The exhibition, which runs until the end of April and also features work by Zizipho Poswa, reflects on making as a form of authorship, healing, and resistance.

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WORDS Gina Dionisio PHOTOS Supplied

Returning for its eighth edition, Spier Light Art is set to transform the historic Stellenbosch wine farm into a glowing, nocturnal landscape of contemporary art.

Curated by Vaughn Sadie and Jay Pather, this year’s edition will feature selected works from 21 South African artists. These illuminating works cover various themes, from environmental crises and post-apartheid realities to more abstract explorations of perception, technology and the cosmos. “The exhibition invites audiences to immerse themselves in the sensual and ephemeral interplay of light and sound, allowing curiosity and intrigue to guide their journey,” says Vaughn.

There is no fixed route or prescribed experience at Spier Light Art; visitors are encouraged to let the many winding paths take them on a personal journey – to experience light as both medium and meaning on their own terms. “The non-linear format is not merely a structural decision; it is a philosophical one. Since visitors enter the farm from different points and proceed at their own pace, the question of how works sit in relation to one another becomes as significant as the works themselves. We think less about sequence and more about what I would call pockets of meaning: moments where groups of works come together in ways that reward those who pause, but also offer something to those who move quickly through.”

This year, the works have been intentionally clustered where scale or composition fosters dialogue. “It’s often a very intuitive decision to cluster a group of works together in the landscape,” says Jay. “Something about their scale or composition sets up an interesting dialogue that speaks back to the curatorial semantics across the whole exhibition. This year, there are the direct and immediate neon text pieces that celebrate the South African vernacular, whilst other works illuminate unexpected intersections between technology, infrastructure and the natural environment.”

Sightlines are essential at Spier Light Art, with the curators arranging works to provide multiple vantage points that reveal subtleties up close while, from a distance, establishing visual connections that guide visitors without controlling their path. “These strategies generate anticipation of what lies ahead and serve as reminders of what has been seen. We consider the farm as a participant and a collaborator in the meaning-making process,” explains Vaughn.

The artists, selected from an open call, were invited to explore light in all its conceptual, socio-political and cultural dimensions. “Jay and I have realised over the last eight years that the most compelling work often comes from not having a predetermined curatorial framework. We issue a broad invitation with multiple themes, inviting diverse responses from creative practitioners across a wide range of disciplines. We hope this creates an inclusive process and also introduces us to new and exciting voices,” says Vaughn.

Through the curatorial process, Jay and Vaughn identified the more developed proposals and posed different questions: how do they hold together? What are they engaging with? Over several rounds, a set of interconnected themes emerged.

“This year, memory emerged as one of the underlying themes. Memory here is not singular or easily defined. What became clear as we examined the selected works was how each artist approached it: through the ethereal and the spiritual; through heritage and embodied identity; through how communities hold their own histories. Some works make this explicit. Others carry it as subtext, as a current running beneath a seemingly more formal or technological exploration. The richness lies in that layering: the visitor encounters memory not as a fixed subject but as a recurring frequency, tuned differently across multiple works,” says Vaughn. Alongside this, the curators paid close attention to how artists engaged with the medium itself. “The use of technology, the exploration of perception, and the turn towards the cosmos. These are not separate from the question of memory but are intertwined with it,” he adds.

Spier Light Art 2026 is also set to continue its international exchange programme, welcoming Swiss artists Florian Bach and Kerim Seiler, whose site-specific projects respond to the South African context, creating a dialogue between local and global perspectives on contemporary light art. “The relationship with the Swiss artists in this programme started a few years ago during a research trip to Switzerland. That was important. It meant that when we formalised the brief, we were not starting from scratch. As the co-curator, I  had spent time engaging with them about their practice, their understanding of the work we were doing with Spier Light Art, and whether South Africa was a context they genuinely felt capable of engaging with at that level of attentiveness, is extremely important to the success of the programme,“ explains Vaughn.

The month-long exhibition is more than illumination – “it is a lens through which we perceive, reflect and question the world,” says Vaughn. “Light determines time. It’s a rare opportunity to step away from the glare of screens and experience light in its most elemental form, allowing visitors to wander freely in the company of strangers, similarly transfixed by the effects of the nocturnal interplay of light and sound,” adds Jay.

Spier Light Art 2026 artists

Chelsea Holland | THE GREY AREA IN THE CAPE WINELANDS

This project uses a complex, interactive system built with motion-design software. The work emerges from interdisciplinary research exploring how humans perceive and relate to both the visible and invisible aspects of the world around them.

David Brown | DOG WATCH I

A permanent piece at Spier, David’s work channels memories of apartheid-era violence and societal injustice, using sculpture to transform trauma into visual storytelling that resonates across time and place.

Florian Bach | SPILL

The artist’s installation confronts audiences with human control over the environment, turning brightness into intrusion and reflecting on social and ecological consequences.

Jenna Burchell | SONGSMITH

A permanent installation at Spier, this interactive sound installation fuses digital and natural elements, creating vessels for memory and storytelling.

Joe Turpin | ‘EISH’

Neon letters and playful text capture the frustrations and contradictions of post-1994 South Africa.

Kenneth Shandu | WHEN THE SKY FALLS

When the Sky Falls reflects on South Africa’s devastating floods and the resilience of affected communities. These recurring disasters, intensified by climate change, poor urban planning and social inequality, result in loss, displacement and the ongoing vulnerability of those most affected.

Kerim Seiler | PNEUMA, SOMNAMBUL

A dynamic, travelling public sculpture composed of single beams, knotted to tetrahedral cells adorned with vibrant, blinking fluorescent lights, Kerim’s work engages deeply with its surroundings.

Kunye Collab | LUMEN VITAE

Lumen Vitae (Latin: Light of Life) explores the profound symmetry between the human body and the cosmos.

Mawande ka Zenzile | UBUGQI

A neon text work embodying the isiXhosa concept of “ubugqi” – profound intuitive knowledge.

Noa Hall | SENTINEL

An experimental documentary installation tracking Johannesburg’s Braamfontein Spruit and its pylons, Sentinel transforms industrial structures into spectral forms.

Paul Thabo Nhlapo | FIDDLEARTH

Through animation and mixed media, Paul explores post-apartheid identity, mental health, injustice and masculinity.

Qondiswa James, Nathalie Ponlot, Themba Stewart & Jonathan O’Hear | SAFE IN THE SHADOWS

An interactive installation that reclaims darkness as sanctuary: a network of cairns – stone, translucent resin and salvaged remnants – linked by root-like conduits that echo mycelial threads and neural pathways, combining light, mirrors and digital feeds to explore memory, ancestral traditions and resistance to compulsory visibility.

Renée Holleman | UNDER THE OVERGROWTH IS NO SMALL MEASURE OF SUNLIGHT

Renée celebrates the overlooked weeds: ‘plants out of place’, reminding us of the veering, queering and rebellious dynamics of living things.

Ronald Abdou & Zachary Stewart | BURNING

This collaborative installation explores how conflict is experienced in the digital age.

Sam ‘/XAM’ Fortuin | ONTHOU

Onthou is an audiovisual short film of a recurring dream that begins and ends on the edge of a kelp forest on the coast of Cape Town.

Stephen van den Heever & Amy Leibbrandt | A MOMENT OF REST FOR THOSE WHO CAN’T

Positioned between the trees along the Eerste River, this artwork engages with the notion of rest for those attending and in honour of those who can’t.

Strijdom van der Merwe | ARTIFACTS

Strijdom reimagines colonial artefacts, replacing Dutch designs with indigenous San and Khoe rock paintings, along with influences of Chinese imports used in Cape Dutch homesteads and the VOC.

Thando Mama | ‘1994 (I)’ (REVISITED)

A multimedia reflection on South Africa’s journey since 1994, Mama’s installation aims to capture resilience and memory.

Theytjie | CLOSER TO HARM THAN HOME

Closer to Harm than Home is a short film that explores the ongoing impact of gun and gang violence on the Cape Flats.

Tiago Rodrigues | THE SOUND OF MY VOICE

Part of the permanent collection at Spier Wine Farm, The Sound of My Voice is an intervention in response to the farm’s slave bell.

Wezile Harmans | ENDLOVINI AS A FORM OF ARCHIVE

Endlovini as a Form of Archive is an installation that dwells in the tension between fragility and resilience.

Spier Light Art runs from 6 March – 6 April 2026 | Daily at dusk. Bookings for entry and sunset picnics can be made on Dineplan. For more information, visit spier.co.za.

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PHOTOS Courtesy of Investec Cape Town Art Fair

Now in its 13th edition, the Investec Cape Town Art Fair announced the winners across five prize categories, including two new prizes that signal where contemporary art is heading: the ORMS International Photography Prize and the Materiality Prize in partnership with Homo Faber.

“Prizes are not just acknowledgements; they create momentum,” says Fair Director Laura Vincenti. “They offer visibility, confidence, and, in many cases, a turning point. For an artist, winning can mean the difference between being seen and being overlooked, between an international opportunity and waiting another year.”

The 2026 Winners

Tomorrows/Today Prize supported by Fiera Milano Exhibitions Africa

Chidirim Nwaubani, represented by Doyle Wham

The Tomorrows/Today Prize was awarded to Chidirim Nwaubani, recognising an artist whose practice reflects the spirit of the fair’s Tomorrows/Today section, dedicated to emerging and under-represented voices pushing the boundaries of contemporary practice.

RDC Art Collection Award

Mellaney Roberts, represented by Berman Contemporary

The RDC Art Collection Award went to Mellaney Roberts, an acquisition prize that offers something rare: guaranteed exhibition of the winning work within one of RDC’s landmark buildings, giving the artist sustained public visibility beyond the fair’s four-day run.

Mellaney explains that she considers this a collective win: “with the community that I grew up with in up in Bobbejaanskloof and in a sense of identity. So, it’s not just for me, but it’s also about taking it back to my community, showing them the appreciation and the hard work that went into excavating their memories, identity, and what land means to us.”

Investec Emerging Artist Award

Warren Maroon, represented by Everard Read

Now in its second year, the Investec Emerging Artist Award went to Warren Maroon, supporting South African artists producing world-class work who are not yet affiliated with an institution, museum, or collection. The award provides recognition that can accelerate a career and open doors internationally.

Maroon’s sculptures use the detritus of everyday life to create new meaning and beauty as a visual representation of his lived experience and his upbringing in the Cape Flats.

ORMS International Photography Prize

Sibusiso Bheka, represented by Afronova

The inaugural ORMS International Photography Prize went to Sibusiso Bheka, whose work proves that photography remains one of the most urgent mediums for engaging with our image-saturated world. The prize also recognises a practice that treats the photographic image not only as documentation, but as a critical, conceptual tool.

The winner receives a substantial cash prize, plus a Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1100 printer, enabling the production of museum-quality archival prints up to A2 and supporting the ongoing development and presentation of their photographic practice.

“The win for me represents hope and also patience,” says Bheka.

Materiality Prize in partnership with Homo Faber

Amy Rusch, represented by Suburbia Contemporary

The Materiality Prize was awarded to Amy Rusch, for whom material is not merely a medium but meaning itself.

The winner receives an all-expenses-paid invitation to participate in the Homo Faber Fellowship Masterclass in Venice, Italy: an eight-month international craft training programme that bridges generations of making, design, and artisanal knowledge.

At a moment when the art world is rediscovering tactility, craft, and process, this prize positions artists working across geographies within a global conversation about what it means to make with one’s hands. | investeccapetownartfair.co.za

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INTERVIEW BY Neyani Mphephu PHOTOS Nicholai Thomas for AITY Gallery

Bold, joyful, and unapologetically maximalist – Kyle Jardine’s dynamic paintings transform domestic dining spaces into celebratory sanctuaries, where queer community and the simple ritual of sharing a meal become a memorable experience. Each canvas in the Live, Love, Lobster series creates an imagined world, painted in fearless fuchsias, vermilions, and sapphire blues, where everyone has a seat at the table.

We spoke to Kyle about joy as resistance, radical inclusion, and the power of creating welcoming spaces.

What does the title Live, Love, Lobster represent to you, and how does it capture the essence of what you’re trying to create in these paintings? 

“My approach to my work, and the essence of it, is rooted in play. The title is a tongue-in-cheek wordplay on the popular phrase ‘live, love, laugh’. It’s a theme that echoes the concept of gathering and the common factors that unite us, with the most popular reason to gather often centred around food. 

The core of my work is heightened by my theatrical background. As in musical theatre, characters break into song in heightened moments, and in a sense my work captures that song in its own visual language. Ultimately, the work aims to capture a feeling or moment, something everyone can relate to and recognise themselves in.” 

Your work celebrates queer community and the concept of ‘kiki’ – creating safe gathering spaces. How have your own experiences shaped this vision of painting safe spaces into existence? 

“Drawing from my experience in theatre, as well as being included among a drag theatre family, and from my own lived experiences of feeling excluded or being bullied growing up, I create work that is inclusive and allows everyone to feel welcome in the worlds I build in my paintings. In a sense, it explores life imitating art, or vice versa, where the work itself becomes a reason to bring people together.” 

How would you describe your artistic philosophy, and what core beliefs shape how you approach your work? 

“My artistic philosophy is centred around love, joy and happiness. In an already chaotic world filled with uncertainty, there is an assurance that the experience of my work will leave you feeling better than when you found it. At its core, my work resounds with love, play and joyful themes. If I’ve been successful at channelling this into my work, then the essence is bound to reach the viewer.” 

The dining table appears as a central motif – what draws you to celebrate the ritual of the shared meal, and to choose domestic interior spaces rather than other settings? 

“I have a love and appreciation for interior architecture. The sense of home, belonging, and the central theme of a shared meal are things we can all relate to. As a homebody and a creature of ritual, I find great comfort in bringing loved ones together around a table.” 

Can you walk us through your creative process, and what’s your favourite part of building these layered worlds? 

“My process is never quite linear. There is something exciting and spontaneous about gathering inspiration through daily life. My process takes shape from sketches, gathered images, moments from songs. These culminate in the adventure of approaching a canvas and allowing the world to take shape. As a maximalist in the worlds I create, there is always room for more. The exciting part is seeing where it all ends up and what has risen to the surface.” 

The colour palette – bright fuchsia, vermilion, sapphire blue – is so bold and confident. How did you develop this visual language, and how do these colours shape the overall look and feel? 

“Colour echoes the sentiment within my work and the reason I create it. My work is a place where I get to use every crayon in the box; there are no rules or limits. It’s been a natural development, since I’m drawn to the brighter side of life and the optimism that colour ignites within me. The overall look and feel reflects a world that visually enchants the viewer; it’s a place of constant discovery.” 

What emotions do you want to stir in viewers when they step into one of your painted gathering spaces? 

“I want people to feel recognised and accepted. My paintings are imagined worlds where everyone is welcome. There is a great love that travels through my creative process, and if it’s able to reach the other side, my work is complete.” 

What’s next for your artistic practice, and how do you see your exploration of community, identity, and domestic space evolving in future work? 

“My journey in the studio is always evolving; it’s a creative space with no limits. I intend to continue creating on a broader level, with many more media to be explored – art that lives on fashion, furniture, and so much more.” 

Live, Love, Lobster is currently showing at AITY Gallery until 2 March 2026. | aitygallery.com

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WORDS Neyani Mphephu PHOTOS Mia Thom / Courtesy of Investec Cape Town Art Fair

Africa’s largest and most internationally connected art fair, Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2026 (ICTAF), represents a remarkable revolution in the art of listening. As the fair returns to the Cape Town International Convention Centre, the theme Listen will transform how guests engage with contemporary art, creating space for genuine dialogue across cultures, continents and creative practices.

“‘Listen’ is an invitation to engage across borders, perspectives and experiences,” shares Fair Director Laura Vincenti. “Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2026 is a convergence of voices – a space where artists, galleries and audiences are encouraged not only to see, but to listen.”

While maintaining its strong Cape Town identity, ICTAF has evolved into an essential bridge connecting diverse international voices. The fair brings together 126 exhibitors representing 23 cities worldwide, showcasing 490 artists from 44 countries across five continents. This remarkable assembly establishes the fair not just as Africa’s largest art event, but as a global artistic capital for one transformative week.

First-time Exhibitors

These new participants represent an exciting mix of well-established and emerging gallery spaces from around the world, including Barcelona’s BETA Contemporary, OOA Gallery and Victor Lope Arte Contemporáneo; CFHILL in Stockholm; Double V Gallery in Marseille; Doyle Wham in London; and Ellen de Bruijne Projects in Amsterdam.

African representation is equally impressive, with galleries including Everyday Lusaka Gallery; Loft 3 Gallery (Harare); Logmo + Makon (Douala); O’DA Art (Lagos); The 1897 Gallery (Lagos); The Space Ethiopia (Addis Ababa); Umoja Art Gallery (Kampala); and Wunika Mukan Gallery (Lagos). European first-time exhibitors include Francesco Pantaleone Arte Contemporanea (Palermo); GALERÍA LUISA PITA (Santiago de Compostela); Livingstone Gallery (The Hague/Berlin); NÉBOA (Lugo); Paulina Caspari (Munich); Perve Galeria (Lisbon); PSM Gallery (Berlin); and The Norm (Paris).

Wearable art

The bespoke tote bags for this year’s edition are designed by Asha Eleven. Each tote features unique paintings and hand-drawn illustrations which form the basis of these richly layered textile designs. The 2026 tote will be available in very limited quantities, which you will be able to purchase at the info desk or Asha Eleven’s booth in Capsule.

Must-see highlights and returning favourites for 2026 

Curated Sections and Special Projects 

Four thoughtfully curated presentations amplify creative voices from around the world. Discover Tomorrows/Today, curated by Dr Mariella Franzoni (Barcelona, Spain); SOLO, curated by Céline Seror (Amsterdam, Netherlands); Generations, curated by Tandazani Dhlakama (Toronto, Canada); and Cabinet/Record, curated by Beata America (Cape Town, South Africa). These internationally curated showcases sit alongside the fair’s three foundational pillars – Main, Editions and Lookout.

This year marks the launch of Performance, the fair’s newest special initiative, adding dynamic layers to the visitor experience. Connect remains dedicated to spotlighting the cultural organisations that cultivate and champion artistic production, while the transformed retail section – newly named Capsule – will feature unique, mindfully made design and craft.

Talks Programme and Art Walks 

Art School Africa has curated a talks programme, supported by iTOO Artinsure, which will be situated inside the fair. The talks programme facilitates important dialogue, alongside a series of interactive, immersive workshops that encourage visitors to create, participate and discover through direct involvement. The fair will also reintroduce guided art walks, with expanded opportunities for engagement.

Unbound City 

Through the Unbound City public programme, the event extends across Cape Town’s lively inner city and surrounding neighbourhoods, offering a continued experience at the After Hours Art Hub, based at The Gin Bar. Nearby, AKJP Studio will also host cocktails and conversations throughout the fair week.

For more updates and information, visit investeccapetownartfair.co.za. Book tickets via webtickets. 

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WORDS Steve Smith PHOTOS Tink Photography, Supplied

A “vessel for life” is how Mick Haigh describes each piece in his new collection. Created from clay dug by hand from the riverbank near his home in the KZN Midlands, and fired in a Japanese-style Anagama wood kiln, the pieces are meant to be lived with, used, admired and passed down.

Mick views his role as a maker as that of both a guide and a witness: he shapes the clay and sets the kiln conditions, but he allows the materials to respond in their own way. No two pieces are alike – the slow, elemental Anagama process means that fire, ash and heat leave their unpredictable signature across the surface of each item.

Tell us more about the Anagama firing process.

“Anagama firing is about learning the kiln. Every kiln has its own character, and its shape and location make it behave in a unique way. How the kiln is packed influences the airflow, flame path and heat patterns, all of which have an impact on the reduction atmosphere inside. The placement of each object determines how it will look after firing: the fire enters at one end and exits at the chimney, and the flame’s path dictates everything in between.

“The process is long and demanding. A firing can last anywhere from 48 to 72 hours, with wood being stoked by hand every few minutes to keep the temperature up. At its peak, the kiln reaches about 1 180°C – hot enough to vitrify the clay, making it hard, glass- like and durable. Different types of wood, the rhythm of stoking and even the weather outside can all play a role in shaping the final surface. The marks of the fire – ash deposits, flame paths, colour variations – remain visible on each piece, recording the entire journey of the firing.”

What drew you to it?

“I am never fully in control of the fire; I can only guide the flame. It is a dialogue between maker and kiln. By working with and directing this seemingly random process, I can shape the outcome while still leaving room for chance. After firing, the piece itself tells the story of what happened, where it stood in the kiln, how the fire moved around it, and what marks the flame left behind.”

Has this always been your process?

“Yes – but my journey has evolved. Initially, I focused on making what I thought people wanted. Over time, I’ve shifted to creating in response to what the clay and fire themselves can produce. For me, form follows function, follows fun – it follows what wild clay and fire reveal as their best expression.”

What features does Anagama firing give your work?

“Anagama firing leaves its signature on every piece. The flame marks and ash deposits embellish the surfaces, softening the forms and giving them character. In the oxygen-deprived atmosphere of the kiln, earth pigments and oxides are transformed, shifting from static, solid hues into natural shades and tones that reflect the raw beauty of the earth.”

Where do you take inspiration from?

“It comes from absorbing the world around me. It isn’t a cerebral process; I don’t sketch pieces before making them. Living in nature provides rhythm and influence. I’ve never made pieces in a city, but I imagine they’d look very different from those shaped amid this natural landscape.

“I’ve had a lifelong fascination with earth and clay. The fact that I can dig clay from the ground in its soft, malleable form, and then, through firing, transform it into something of lasting value, continues to inspire me.”

What about the 2025 collection?

“It was inspired by building the Anagama kiln at my studio and working with wild clay that I dig locally. This allows me to create an ecologically sound body of work that’s rooted in place and process. Each piece is conceived as something made not just to be used, but to hold meaning, memory and presence. My hope is that they become keepsakes – companions that live with people over time.” | mickhaigh.com

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WORDS Gina Dionisio PHOTOS Supplied

Graham Beck, the renowned South African producer of Cap Classique, has unveiled its inaugural Artist’s Retreat – an immersive residency that invites local creatives to reinterpret the estate’s profound sense of place.

The first chapter in this ongoing series welcomed celebrated multidisciplinary artist Michael Chandler, whose work is well known for its sensitivity to craft, history and materiality. Following his previous collaboration with Graham Beck, the artist returned to the Robertson estate to create a singular piece: a hand-painted ceramic wine egg, realised over three days in the heart of the vineyards.

A dialogue between terroir, time and creativity

Set against 3 000 hectares of limestone-rich terrain and a protected nature reserve, the Artist’s Retreat grants creators full access to the environment, inviting a deeper contemplation of terroir.

For Michael, this meant stepping directly into the landscape to gather his own pigments. Using chalky limestone and decomposed granite sourced from the estate’s vineyards, he transformed the raw earth into delicate colour. Each hue became an authentic chromatic interpretation of Robertson’s geology.

Michael’s chosen canvas for the initiative was a ceramic wine egg – itself an object of design and innovation. Within Graham Beck’s cellar, these eggs serve as fermentation vessels prized for their purity of form and function. Their smooth curvature encourages a natural circulation of wine, while the porous ceramic allows gentle oxygen exchange.

Throughout his three-day residency, Michael engaged in a meditative dialogue with the vessel. He moved from gathering soils from the estate and refining them into pigments, to painting layered expressions of botanicals, geological textures and subtle echoes of the Graham Beck Nature Reserve. The final piece embodies a rare alchemy: earth transformed into colour and colour rendered as story.

The completed ceramic wine egg now resides within the estate’s Innovation Cellar – a sanctuary devoted to exploration and the future of Cap Classique.

The Artist’s Retreat will return in 2026, inviting new voices to reinterpret the landscape and continue this conversation between creativity and craft. As with Graham Beck’s Cap Classique, each edition will reflect the precision, patience and pursuit of beauty that define the House. grahambeck.com | @mrchandlerhouse

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