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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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The ANNA Awards aims to recognise and nurture a new generation of women-identifying artists from the African continent and the diaspora. 

The annual ANNA Award, sponsored by ANNA Pure Organic, aims to discover, recognise, and nurture a new generation of women-identifying artists from Africa. ANNA Pure Organic is South Africa’s first locally manufactured, environmentally friendly and organic feminine hygiene product range.

This year there were a staggering 743 applications from 38 countries across the African continent. The 12 finalists who were shortlisted for the 2024 ANNA Awards are:

• Ethel Aanyu (Uganda)
• Yaknoabasi Jessicah Ene (Nigeria) 
• Marie Aimée Fattouche (Egypt)
• Kay-Leigh Fisher (South Africa)
• Leah Rachel Hawker (South Africa)
• Xanthe Scout Lardner-Burke (South Africa)
• Isabella Maake (South Africa)
• Ntsako Nkuna (South Africa)
• Lee-Ann Olwage (South Africa)
• Silindokuhle Shandu (South Africa)
• Xanthe Somers (Zimbabwe)
• Jana Visser (South Africa)

On 7 August Xanthe Somers was revealed as this year’s ANNA Award Winner.

“I am deeply honoured to be selected as this year’s ANNA Award winner, especially among such a remarkable group of finalists. I want to extend my deepest gratitude for this recognition and the opportunities it brings. This award will undoubtedly enhance my artistic career, offering new avenues for creative exploration and growth. It is vital to spotlight and elevate the voices of female African artists on the global stage, as our unique perspectives and stories contribute richly to the world’s cultural tapestry,” says Xanthe.

The winner receives R100,000, a residency programme hosted by SAFFCA, a presentation at the 2025 RMB Latitudes Art Fair, a profile on Latitudes Online, and a year’s supply of ANNA products.

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The British Fashion Council NEW WAVE: Creatives is a resource for the global fashion industry, one that highlights London’s position as an international hub of creativity. As part of this year’s NEW WAVE: Creatives, the group will benefit from a dedicated, sustained communications campaign, including international PR, year-round social media support across the BFC’s channels, and a purpose-built portal on The Fashion Awards website.

Represented by Latitudes Online, Cinthia was born in the DRC but the visual references and influences in her art are rooted in her adopted home of South Africa. Her works are defined by the mediums of painting and collage; a dual representation that brings together narratives of Western art history, popular culture and experiences of the contemporary African woman against their combined backdrop. The focus of her art is on the representation of Black women.

READ MORE: Cool Collaboration: Gucci X Cinthia Sifa Mulanga

“Through their depiction, I engage in different personas, emotions, or states of mind. Typically, I juxtapose several different women in my paintings, thereby highlighting the complexities of female identity, the stream of varying consciousnesses that occupy a single space, identity or moment in time. As such my paintings operate as multi-perspectival portraits while the spaces allow me to create open conversations and interrogate the notions of beauty,” explains Cinthia.

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Tears Become Rain is a newly released film and immersive online exhibition which illustrates the power of music in bringing together the community of Graaff-Reinet to sing for rain.

In February 2020, Tears Become Rain was announced as one of the grant recipients of the Social Impact Arts Prize. Drawing on the rich choral tradition of the Graaff-Reinet region, Cape Town based sculptor David Brits and his team’s winning project envisioned 2 500 people gathering for a mass-choir performance in the town square of Graaff-Reinet to sing for rain during the worst drought in a thousand years.

Less than a month after being announced as recipients of the Social Impact Arts Prize, the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown was declared. David and his team were forced to pivot. New constraints for creativity provided an opportunity to re-envision the project and tell the story through the medium of film.

This film, titled Tears Become Rain, was developed through a series of creative workshops with people from the coral-rich community of Graaff-Reinet. The film harnesses the uncanny ability of song to bridge the lines which divide us. The town’s choral tradition is one that transcends racial, political and economic boundaries in a dorp still haunted by the template of apartheid spatial planning.

The film’s narrative follows the journey of a young San boy, told by |xam rainmaker and master storyteller //Kabbo, in a time of great drought. Crying, his tears of grief turn into rain and restore abundance to the world.

Tears Become Rain is a story in the Bleek-Lloyd Archive of San oral history and was recorded by linguists Lucy Lloyd and Wilhelm and Dorothea Bleek between 1871 and 1873. The visual concepts, epic poem and the lyrical and musical compositions drew significantly from the archive to evolve into this moving film.

Award-winning Afrikaans poet Ronelda S. Kamfer was commissioned to interpret //Kabbo’s original story from the Bleek-Lloyd Archive into an epic poem. Connecting contemporary lives to a story from our shared past, through the series of community-based choir and music workshops, Kamfer’s poem became the basis for the lyrics and rhapsodic musical composition that lie at the heart of the film.

“The journey of Tears Become Rain started in September 2019, shortly after the Social Impact Arts Prize was launched.” recalls David. “As an artist working in the sphere of public art, I felt deeply moved to create a project proposal. I knew I wanted to work collaboratively, so I called up my friend of twenty years, Raiven Hansmann, an accomplished musician and music producer, and told him we were going to Graaff-Reinet on a research trip.”

“Arriving in the historic Karoo town, we began by talking with people. At the end of our ten-day trip, we had conducted over fifteen interviews with pastors, museum directors, teachers, shopkeepers, and archaeologists. Doing so we realised that the people of Graaff-Reinet were united by two things,” says the artist. “The townsfolk were living through the most catastrophic drought, and that everybody, absolutely everybody loves to sing”.

Coinciding with the lifting of South Africa’s hard lockdown and the suspension of the interprovincial travel ban, David and his team seized the opportunity and returned to Graaff-Reinet for a two-week-long creative workshop. The creative team hand picked twelve of the town’s best singers to form an all-star choir that reflected the many choirs, diverse choral genres and language groups present in Graaff-Reinet.

During the creative workshops, hosted at the John Rupert Theatre, the team facilitated a process whereby the newly-minted choir began to put Roldeda S. Kamfer’s poem to music. Different stanzas of the poem were given to choir members to interpret in their unique singing styles. These stanzas were put back together, forming a cohesive song which was rehearsed and then recorded in the mobile recording studio set up in the theatre. This was a remarkable feat considering that this choir had never sung together before, and that for the majority of the singers this was their first-time recording music in a studio.

Simultaneous to the musical workshop, David along with the very small film crew, worked with three first time actors from Graaff-Reinet to shoot a series of live action sequences in the surrounding landscape. Having never been in front of a camera before, these first-time actors transformed themselves into the film’s lead characters.

This film can be viewed on Latitudes Online from 16 June – 31 July 2021. The accompanying immersive online exhibition also chronicles the multifaceted community arts workshops out of which the film arose.

Looking for more on art? Take a look at the new Roger Ballen Centre for Photographic Art.

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