The Cassirer Welz Award is an annual Award, sponsored by The Bag Factory Artists’ Studios, in partnership with Strauss & Co and the Everard Read Gallery. In its seventh year running, the award has famously been a launching pad for upcoming artists and the 2017 Cassirer Welz Award Winner is Richard ‘Specs’ Ndimande.

Every year the award aims to discover artists specialising in sculpture, drawing and painting and grants them with an opportunity of a ten-week residency at The Bag Factory Artists’ studios and a one-week exhibition with Everard Read Gallery at the end of their residency. The winners’ interaction with the Bag Factory resident artists, through the exchange of ideas, mentorship and skills development provides the artist with a chance for substantial creative and professional growth. From its inception, this award has seen winners launch their careers and make a name for themselves in the art community of South Africa.

Richard was born in Soweto, and he obtained a BA of Fine Arts Degree at the University of Johannesburg in 2017. He works in various disciplines of art making such as painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He’s shown at the Turbine Art Fair 2017 with Res studio. He also participated in Shared Histories exhibition in Vancouver, Canada through North Island College and South Africa Apartheid Museum. In 2016 he showcased at the Sculptural Dustbin Project in Northcliffe Hills, by Gordon Froud, as well as taking part at University of Johannesburg as part of the Third year Group exhibition at Art It Is Gallery, Johannesburg.

The award is well known to launch artists’ careers such as Blessing Ngobeni, Tshepo Mosopa, Asanda Kupa, Thato Nhlapo, Keneilwe Mokoena and Nompumelelo Ngoma. Richard “Specs” is the 7th winner of this prestigious award.

The Everard Read gallery will present a special exhibition featuring the work of Richard “Specs” Ndimande. The show opens Saturday at 10 am till 12 pm on the 10th of March and runs until the 14th March 2018.

Everard Read Gallery located in Rosebank, Johannesburg has been Africa’s oldest commercial art gallery for 105 years now, dedicated to exhibiting paintings and sculpture by South Africa’s finest modern and contemporary artists. The gallery’s one crucial component of its mission is the development of young artists’

Artwork: Predatory beast 2018 | 54 x 42 cm | ink, pen, bleach