The CEO of Phatshoane Henney Attorneys, and spokesperson for the New Breed Art competition, Lesley Mokgoro, announced the winners of the 2022 competition at the Oliewenhuis Art Museum on 03 November 2022.
“As a deaf person, I am not able to communicate with my family. My artwork describes my family and the challenges that I have when I want to express something. They do not know sign language and normally I have to do lip reading to communicate with them. Communication with my family is a real challenge for me”, said Keabetswe Mosetlhe (translated from South African Sign Language), the Overall winner of the 2022 New Breed Art Competition and the Public Choice winner.
Keabetswe Mosetlhe
Keabetswe entered her fragile, yet masterfully executed, ceramic figures entitled “Signing”. She is a 22-year-old deaf student from Thaba Nchu studying at the Motheo TVET Colleague. The judges agreed that Keabetswe deserved the highest accolade in this year’s competition and was awarded R50,000 in prize money as the Overall winner. The public was allowed to vote and determine the 2022 Public Choice Award winner, and with more than 2200 votes cast by 1600 people, Keabetswe won her second award and prize money of R10 000 for being the public’s favourite artist in the 2022 competition.
Keabetswe Mosetlhe, Signing, Ceramic Clay, 2022 Overall Winner and Peoples choice Award
Keabetswe Mosetlhe, Peoples Choice Award
The second-place winner, Katleho Lesige won R20 000 for his work titled “Surviving Lefatse”, a striking photograph casting an unfiltered spotlight on the continuing scourge of gender-based violence. The two Merit Awards were awarded firstly to Kamohelo Gift Sebonyane, for his mixed media work on canvas entitled “Let’s break the silence of the past”, and also Kwandiwa Dlwati, for his two works, one in ceramic and the other in mixed media, which deals with topics relating to the role of women in rural areas and the economic impact of load shedding on rural communities. Both these winners were awarded R10 000 in prize money.
Katleho Lesige, Second-place winner
Katleho Lesige, Surviving Lefatse. Photographic. Second-place winner
The New Breed Art Competition was established in 2016 as a unique visual arts competition for Free State artists. Now in its sixth year, the competition provides an excellent platform for Free State artists to showcase their talent and benefit from the prizes and national exposure the competition provides.
For the competition exhibition, the judges carefully selected 27 works by 24 new breed artists. From these 24 new breed artists, the judges were tasked to select the winner, runner-up, and 2 merit award winners, while the public was allowed the opportunity to vote for and so determine the Public Choice winner.
“Despite interesting debate and frank conversations about the subject choices of our 2022 artists, when it came down to selecting the winners, the judges were on the same page in their decisions. With the winning works dealing with tough topics and conversations, the judges felt inspired by the bravery and integrity of the artists and their choice of issues, expressing satisfaction at how the artists have in their art captured their lived experiences”, remarked Mokgoro.
This year’s eminent judges were Nathi Gumede, assistant project manager at the Art Bank of South Africa, Storm Janse van Rensburg, Senior Curator and Head of Curatorial Affairs at Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town and Melissa Goba, Independent curator and panel convener of the MTN and University of Johannesburg New Contemporaries Legacy Panel.
Nathi Gumede spoke on behalf of the 2022 judges and remarked that they needed to highlight that their decisions were heavily reliant on the need to highlight artworks that spoke to prevalent social, economic, and political issues. They also emphasized the importance of the artist making art that reflected society and provided a mirror for us to look into and review ourselves.
Mokgoro thanked the competition partners for the support they continue to provide to the competition and their passion for art and the artists. The 2022 competition partners are Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Art Bank of South Africa and the Free State Art Collective. A special mention and thanks were also given to Absa Bank Limited for sponsoring an inspiring series of engaging online webinars with key South African artists under the New Breed Art banner.
For more information on the competition and the winning artworks, visit www.newbreedart.co.za.
Kwandiwa Dlwati, Facing the dark, mixed media. Merit award winner
Kwandiwa Dlwati, Merit award winner