‘Skattie Celebrates’ launches in Cape Town

Forget stuffy art openings, the party is coming to the gallery and the white cube is about to become a whole lot more fun.

‘Skattie, What Are You Wearing?’ fashion and lifestyle blogger Malibongwe Tyilo (and VISI Editor-at-Large of course), together with journalist and blogger Sandiso Ngubane, is launching ‘Skattie Celebrates’, a quarterly online publication that celebrates emerging talent.

Each issue of the publication, created in partnership with Art South Africa magazine, will focus on exhibiting the work of one emerging creative talent, along with in-depth interviews with them.

The inaugural launch party, which will be held at Cape Town’s Blank Gallery, will celebrate Unathi Mkonto’s illustrations, which thus far have never been publicly exhibited.

“His illustrations, while grounded in fashion, take inspiration from areas as varied as architecture, cricket and comic books. After seeing Unathi’s work we caught ourselves wishing somebody would share his illustrations with the world and then we thought: ‘why not us?’ And so ‘Skattie Celebrates’ was born,” said the editors Malibongwe Tyilo and Sandiso Ngubane.

But this is no ordinary exhibition. Expect music, a dance floor, and an open bar stocked by Spier Wine Farm. The DJs include well-known names such as artist Athi-Patra Ruga, and cult writer Roger Young.

“We are very excited about this project’s potential to grow the art audience, whilst giving artists a platform beyond the gallery,” says Tyilo. “A typical artist monograph is so expensive to produce, and remains a dream for most artists. This publication functions as a monograph for each of the artists we celebrate, and because it is easily downloadable, there’s not limitation to how far the word can spread.”