WORDS Palesa Kgasane IMAGES courtesy of THK Gallery
Johannesburg-based visual artist Lerato Motaung has been announced as the winner of this year’s Emergence Art Prize.
The winner was selected by a panel of judges, including Ashraf Jamal, Azu Nwagbogu, Carolynne Waterhouse and Bettina Nampé, from 184 entries, featuring talented artists across different mediums and disciplines.
Lerato received his Diploma in Fine Arts in 2015 from the Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria. His mixed-media paintings are linked to memory and are inspired by his life, from the city environment in which he lives and works to the paradoxical suburban feel of Katlehong township and where he grew up in a rural part of North West province.
Glorified Defention, 2019.
Lerato creates abstract artworks that often make use of contrast, with both dark and bright colours. He was a finalist in the 2019 PPC Imaginarium Awards, hosted at the University of Johannesburg Art Gallery, and is currently part of a group exhibition at Latitude Art Fair online.
The winner of the Emergence Art Prize will have an exhibition at THK Gallery in Cape Town, take part in a two-month residency at the Quartier am Hafen studio house on the banks of Cologne in Germany in June/July 2021, as well as receive a cash prize of R80 000.
The work of the two runners-up, Cape Town-based artist Pardon Mapondera and Johannesburg-based visual artist Lulama Mlambo, will also be showcased as part of the THK Gallery exhibition.
To see more of Lerato Motaung’s work, follow him on Instagram.
