Second Annual Brett Kebble Art Award finalists to be announced in mid-July
by Kresta Tyler Johnson
In June marked the curatorial selection team for the second annual Brett Kebble Art Awards (BKAA) scoured the various regional submission points to make final selections for the art awards. Entries have increased from 1600 last year to over 2000 now.
In an effort to avoid precluding anyone as a result of their location, the sites for submissions ranged from major city centres such as Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and Bloemfontein to smaller places like Port Elizabeth, Giyani, White River and Umtata. The committee comprises curator Clive Van den Berg, Julia Charlton, curator of WITS Art Galleries, Churchill Madikida, artist and curator of Constitution Hill Collection. They are assisted by Khwezi Gule, recipient of the first BKAA curatorial fellowship and Claire Breukel, co-curator of the 2004 show.
Artists were given complete freedom regarding the scale and scope of their submissions. The result is what Van den Berg hopes will be an exhibition of the unexpected, with artists that will "chart new emotional and physical territory and break stereotypes".
The preliminary selections have been made and sent to Cape Town, with the penultimate list of finalists being determined on July 10. Once the exhibition has been mounted at the Cape Town Convention Centre, the final winners will be selected by a group of judges that includes photographer Zwelethu Mthethwa, Professor Penny Siopis, artist and head of Fine Art at WITS, artist and lecturer Frank Ledimo, art advisor Julia Meintjes and art patron Lucia Burger.
Prize money has been doubled from last year, and whoever receives the award for the most exceptional work stands to win R200 000. The exhibition will be on public view from October 17 to 29.
