Two weeks left  to view the Sasol New Signatures Exhibition 2023
 
There are just two weeks left to view the Sasol New Signatures Art Competition exhibition, featuring the work of the 2023 winners and finalists.  The exhibition, which takes place at Pretoria Art Museum, features 118 works in a multitude of mediums and should not be missed!  A highlight of the exhibition are the works by the seven 2023 winners as well as Ingoma Yothando, or Song of Love translated from isiZulu,  the solo exhibition by Mondli Mbhele, winner of Sasol New Signatures 2022.
 
What people have had to say:
 
“As can be expected when so many brilliant young minds meet, it becomes an opportunity to challenge established norms and to cross boundaries. It is also the most talked about arts event in the country, as it is almost impossible to be lukewarm about the works exhibited. One either lauds or condemns... but inevitably one discusses!”
Pieter van Heerden, Director of the Association of Arts Pretoria

“Sasol New Signatures continues to breathe new creative life into the South African landscape.  Is it fair to say this might be one of the best showcases of South African talent at Sasol New Signatures, so far? The selected finalists have pulled out all the stops and it was hard to walk away without purchasing one (or 20) artworks”.
Johannesburg in Your Pocket

“This year's edition of the 2023 Sasol New Signatures Art Competition continues its tradition of challenging the current status quo, crossing boundaries, and offering viewers something to talk about. The exhibition of the top 118 works explore various themes from poverty, education, love, religion, rape, climate change, displacement in a diverse range of mediums, some reimagining the use of traditional materials”
Art.co.za

"Every person has a story that needs to be told and I am particularly proud that this competition provides a space for all creative voices to be heard and seen"
Pfunzo Sidogi, Chairperson of the Sasol New Signatures Competition

“The new artists that entered the Sasol New Signatures Competition in 2023 show immense potential”
Bongi Dhlomo-Mautloa, artist and 2023 Judge

For those not able to visit the Pretoria Art Museum, a virtual 3D gallery is available on the Sasol New Signatures website
 
The exhibition is open for viewing at the Pretoria Art Museum until 29 October 2023.

All the finalists are included in the competition catalogue which can be downloaded here
 
Pretoria Art Museum
corner of Francis Baard and Wessels Street
Arcadia Park
Pretoria

Tel:  012 358 6750

Gallery Hours
Tuesday to Sunday:  10:00 to 17:00 
 

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Gqeberha student Nosiviwe Matikinca wins 2023 Sasol New Signatures Art Competition

Nosiviwe Matikinca, a third year student from Gqeberha has been announced as the winner of the 2023 Sasol New Signatures Art Competition.  Matikinca won the coveted title for her work titled Ndiziphiwe -They were given to me,  a ceramic installation about underprivileged learners who wear school shoes that are handed down to them by their older siblings or family members.  By immortalising these shoes through the ceramic slip-casting method, they have been given a new purpose. This process also enables the artist to capture the essence of the used shoes, including every mark, scratch and hole.  As ceramic sculptures, the shoes have been symbolically restored, but are also very fragile and breakable. This fragility is a metaphor for the precarity of the public schooling system of our country, where black South African learners are subjected to sub-standard education.

Themba Mkhangeli from Cape Town was crowned runner-up for his work entitled Amawele.  The portrait of twin sisters, who reside in the artist’s neighbourhood, pays homage to their beauty and innocence, embodied through the unerasable process of ink pen drawing. Although  gender-based violence inserts unerasable marks on women that hurt and scar them, the unerasable mark-making used in this drawing does the opposite, because it celebrates and honours the beauty of women. The diamond shape between them is the symbol of beauty which  he always finds in women, it also creates a balance between the two figures. 

The 5 Merit award winners are:
 
Matthew David Blackburn
Suffocation
Acrylic on hardboard
 
Michelle Czarnecki
There is still time I
Ribbon thread on linen
 
Ofentse Letebele (King Debs)
Bina & Neo
Mixed media – acrylic paint on MDF
 
Thabo Treasure Mofokeng
Restoration
Acrylic paint and glass
 
Taryn Emily Noppé
Vertigo
Ink and graphite on Fabriano
  
Ingoma Yothando, or Song of Love translated from isiZulu, is the solo exhibition by Mondli Mbhele, winner of Sasol New Signatures 2022 and was also unveiled at the Pretoria Art Museum on 6 September.  Mbhele’s medium of choice is fabric collage, as for him it shares similarities with our daily lives. Fabric covers our bodies, while boosting our confidence and providing a new canvas for each day. Mbhele collects offcuts of fabric from various fusion artists in Durban and Johannesburg for use in his collages. He realised that these offcuts have different qualities and value or worth, but when discarded they become a metaphor for a state of vulnerability. By collecting and using these offcuts, he creates a new dialogue between that which is discarded and its worth.
 
The Sasol New Signatures exhibition featuring the work of the 2023 winners and finalists, takes place at the Pretoria Art Museum until  29 October 2023.