WORDS Neyani Mphephu PHOTOS Supplied

It is incredible to witness the growth of South African art and talent across different art forms, with artists expressing themselves in unique ways to reach one common goal. Each winner of the 2026 Standard Bank Young Artist Awards pushes the boundaries of their discipline, exploring themes including love, girlhood, African ontologies and transformative performance on a world stage.

The winners will showcase their fascinating bodies of work at the National Arts Festival, to be held in Makhanda from 25 June to 5 July 2026.

“It’s such an important part of the Festival each year, to host the Standard Bank Young Artist cohort’s new work. The 2026 cohort reflects a mix of fresh language and positioning alongside historical grounding; the energy is high and confident. We’re looking forward to innovation, influence and remembering,” notes Artistic Director Rucera Seethal.

The 2026 Standard Bank Young Artist Awards winners include:

Jason Jacobs – Theatre
Presents Kraal

Jason performed Kraal in both a traditional theatre and a sacred matjieshut – a two-part decolonial curation that powerfully unravels inherited trauma and the shadow of the colonial dop system. Originally from the landscapes of Namaqualand, he combines heritage and contemporary storytelling through film and theatre. He will also showcase his screenplay Variations on a Theme alongside his co-writer and co-director Devon Delmoar – a story about an elderly goatherd caught in a reparations scam: a portrait of waiting, endurance and loss as repetition serves as revelation.

Lee-Che Janecke – Dance
Presents MAJAIVAN: A Movement Story of the Life of Lee-Che Janecke

Known globally as Litchi HOV, Lee-Che Janecke is the choreographer, creative director and cultural innovator behind some popular contemporary African dances. MAJAIVAN: A Movement Story of the Life of Lee-Che Janecke is his most personal offering yet: an emotional autobiography told entirely through movement. Lee-Che was the creative architect of Tyla’s Grammy Award-winning Water, which became a global dance awakening. Also noteworthy is his 2025 MTV VMA-nominated work, Push 2 Start, for Best Choreographer.

Gabi Motuba – Jazz
Presents The Sounds of a Black Girl

Gabi Motuba moves through jazz like a philosopher through language – with precision, curiosity and deep conviction. The Sounds of a Black Girl brings a new ensemble to the stage for a performance rooted in improvisation, spiritual jazz and neo-soul, building on the experimental foundations of The Sabbath. A vocalist and composer of rare emotional range, Gabi is redefining what South African jazz can hold.

Manana – Music
Presents Pulchritudinous: The Beauty of the Journey

SAMA-winning Manana arrives at the Festival with his most ambitious live offering to date. Pulchritudinous: The Beauty of the Journey spans his entire artistic arc – from debut EP In the Beginning Was the End to 2025’s OBHM: Full Stop – performed with a full band and horn section. With collaborations stretching from Burna Boy and Usher to Tyla, Cynthia Erivo and Sauti Sol, Manana will perform new arrangements, rare renditions and unreleased material in a once-in-a-lifetime showcase.

Bronwyn Katz – Visual Art
Presents Ta a-b kobab ada kāxu-da, ti khoe-du’e!

Bronwyn Katz’s exhibition Ta a-b kobab ada kāxu-da, ti khoe-du’e! is a quiet act of linguistic retrieval, translating the body’s own cartographies into metal scaffolds, horns and cavities alive with healing herbs, beeswax and conductive wire. Born in Kimberley and based in Cape Town, Katz is a founding member of iQhiya, the celebrated 11-woman collective that has shown at Documenta 14 in Kassel and Athens. Her practice is an evolving system of notation: an effort to speak the phonetics of a language not yet fully remembered.

The National Arts Festival runs from 25 June to 5 July 2026. Visit nationalartsfestival.co.za to view the curated programme, which includes showcases by all the 2026 Standard Bank Young Artist Awards winners.

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WORDS Gina Dionisio

Established by the National Arts Festival in 1981, the annual Standard Bank Young Artist Awards (SBYA) are given to young South African artists who have demonstrated exceptional ability in their chosen field, and whose artistic excellence has put them on the threshold of national acclaim or enabled them to make international breakthroughs. Over the past four decades, they have become one of the most prestigious honours in the South African arts scene.

“We are proud to support this new generation of visionaries as they continue to shape the future of our cultural landscape and ensure that our creative heritage thrives for decades to come,” says Bonga Sebesho, Standard Bank’s Group Head of Sponsorship.

More than 180 directors, actors, dancers, playwrights, musicians, poets, and visual artists have received this honour since its inception – a constellation of talent that includes William Kentridge, Andrew Buckland, Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi, Mbongeni Ngema​, and Nduduzo Makhathini.

Meet the 2025 Standard Bank Young Artist Award Winners

Through the SBYA, Standard Bank and the National Arts Festival have celebrated the pulse and potential of South African art, honouring creators who challenge convention and expand the contours of creativity. Already lauded both at home and abroad, this year’s recipients are bold, boundary-breaking voices, shaping South Africa’s creative narrative on a global scale.

Nyakallo Maleke – Visual Arts

Nyakallo Maleke’s drawings take viewers on a transcendent journey – a journey of migration, vulnerability, and spatial memory. With exhibitions across Europe and a Master’s from Switzerland’s édhéa, her work expands the conversation around drawing as both medium and metaphor.

Asanda Ruda – Dance

Previously a member of the Pina Bausch Foundation touring Europe, the dancer and choreographer has captivated audiences with Kemet (Black Lands), her acclaimed solo work which came out of her residency programme at Hellarau, a Pan-African cultural event that takes place every two years. She is currently participating in the Centre national de la danse x Cité internationale des arts residency, in Paris.

Calvin Ratladi – Theatre

A SAFTA-winning artist, Calvin Ratladi has garnered Ovation Awards at the National Arts Festival and showcased his work at festivals in Germany and Luxembourg, pushing South African theatre into new, immersive dimensions.

Siyasanga ‘Siya’ Charles – Jazz

Through her Siya Charles Sextet, Siyasanga is redefining South African jazz, layering the country’s rich musical traditions with a fresh, fearless sensibility. A magna cum laude Juilliard-graduate trombonist, her career is already a global story, shaped by collaborations with luminaries like Hugh Masekela and Grammy-winning artists.

Muneyi – Music 

Limpopo-born Muneyi’s music is filled with memory, myth, and meaning. His lyrics, inspired by his grandmother, explore themes of love, loss, and identity. They transcend language while remaining deeply rooted in the rhythms of Tshivenda storytelling.

Modise Sekgothe – Poetry

From Washington DC to Gothenburg and Brussels, Modise’s words have reverberated on global stages, bending the boundaries of spoken word into new realms of performance art.

Winning an SBYA award is a launchpad for bold artistic exploration and a gateway to opportunities that transcend borders. In addition to the encouragement and financial support the artists receive as they pursue their careers, they’re also guaranteed a place on the main programme at the next National Arts Festival. | nationalartsfestival.co.za

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The story of this year’s winner of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art Blessing Ngobeni is one of overcoming great social, economic and academic adversity, and channelling art as a means to heal and inspire. 

The multi-award-winning Limpopo-born artist survived a difficult childhood, spent mostly as a runaway, and a stint in prison. It was behind bars where he was exposed to art through the Tsoga (Wake Up) Arts Project. But that was not where his challenges ended. Following his artworks being stolen in 2008 from one of the gallery’s who represented him, he took a year’s break from creating art.

It was when he began again in 2010 that the style he is now well known for emerged. “It was difficult to get quality materials; I had to use what I could came across, such as recycled materials, which resulted in the mixed-media art I do today,” he explains. “The method was experimental – cutting up images of the work of masters such as Gerard Sekoto and Picasso. I fell in love with the sound of scissors cutting old art magazines into the different shapes and the process of dripping – a result of the tears I had inside me.”

His skill has extended to sculpture, performance, installation, video and sound, with the latter having seen him work with this year’s Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz Sisonke Xonti. Of the award Blessing says he’s proud that his message is getting across and sees it as an opportunity that will amplify his career.

“I’m inspired by all the creative individuals who never give up contributing great ideas that can change the minds of others around the world,” he says. Blessing has an upcoming solo exhibition at Everard Read in March titled Replica Every Sang.

“It pertains to history and its significance to the modern style of narration: How the child of this generation misinterprets the consequences of the re-writing of stories that are confrontational, and how it is assured that all that it’s been fed is a replica of the past,” he says of the exhibition. “At some point the mirrored image of our continent has been narrated back to us, with a foreign accent, so that you can hear the tone of voice of thieves, under the name of donor.”

In addition to the solo show, which is on at Everard Read, 3 Portswood Road, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town, from 4 to 25 March 2020, Blessing has upcoming shows all over the world, including an exhibition at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda in July through the Standard Bank Young Artist Award. 

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Igshaan Adams, winner of the 2018 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art, is an artist to watch. We chatted to him to find out what he has planned for the year ahead.

What are some of the key themes you explore in your work?

I started out considering the influences my domestic environment had on my identity: my upbringing; the internal conflict about my spirituality, race and sexuality; and the dynamics within my family. Now my work is more abstract. I remain engaged with the relationship between the sacred and the profane. Overriding themes are still centred around self, but from a mystical point of view.

What inspired your latest body of work?

For my solo exhibition, I grappled with the dynamics of chaos and order in an attempt to unravel the rigidity of certain universal laws.

Tell us more about your creative process.

I’m often inspired by the materials themselves and how they can be used to express emotions. I used to draw and make preliminary sketches a lot, but now I work more intuitively.

What drives you as an artist?

There’s a simple need to create to the point where if I don’t, I feel unsettled. I enjoy feeling that my work forms part of something far bigger than myself.

What do you love about contemporary South African art?

That we are now, I believe, being noticed for the right reasons. I think South African art is driven not only by conceptual inquiry but also aesthetic resolve.

What are your plans for the year ahead?

I will show at the National Arts Festival as the SBYA in July. In September I start a performance-based residency in Sweden, and I’m working on a group show in Norway for early 2019.

To see more of Igshaan’s work, visit blankprojects.com.

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The winners of the 36^th edition of the Standard Bank Young Artist Awards have been announced.

Polokwane-born Dineo Bopape – who took home the award for Performance Art – works in a variety of mediums, ranging from installation and video to painting. She uses her work and subject matter to evoke a strong sense of memory.

Dineo creates a tangible language though her pieces in a way that blurs the boundaries of communication. “What inspires me in my work is a need to try and understand the world, to try and understand myself, to try and understand the world that we live in,” she explains.

This short video below tells her story and her relationship with multimedia art:

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The winners of the 36^th edition of the Standard Bank Young Artist Awards have been announced.

Johannesburg-based sculptor Beth Diane Armstrong is the recipient of the award for Visual Arts, announced at the National Arts Festival in Johannesburg.

Beth works on bringing structure to her sculptures, whether organic, mathematical, architectural, psychological or conceptual. “I’ve always been a maker,” she explains. “I remember rushing out of the classroom in grade one at break to go and collect rubbish and sticks and leaves and things to make little creatures out of.”

This short video below tells her story and her relationship with sculpture:

To see more of her work, visit everard-read-capetown.co.za.

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