The fifth MTN New Contemporaries Arts Awards will be taking place later this year in September at the KSNSA in Durban. This prestigious competition is held biannually and four emerging South African artists are identified by an emerging curator to compete for the title.  This year’s event will take place for the first time at the KZNSA Gallery.

“The MTN SA New Contemporaries Award affirms our responsibility to encourage creative thinking outside the business arena and allows the opportunity for young South Africans...

The fifth MTN New Contemporaries Arts Awards will be taking place later this year in September at the KSNSA in Durban. This prestigious competition is held biannually and four emerging South African artists are identified by an emerging curator to compete for the title.  This year’s event will take place for the first time at the KZNSA Gallery.

“The MTN SA New Contemporaries Award affirms our responsibility to encourage creative thinking outside the business arena and allows the opportunity for young South Africans to be heard. These awards are also aimed at promoting young artists who have not yet had the opportunity for appropriate exposure.” says Eunice Maluleke, Head of MTN SA Foundation.

The Award competition is designed to promote talented, cutting-edge artists who have not yet received critical acclaim but who are positioned to be the next leaders in the art field.

The position of curator this year was managed by Nontobeko Ntombela, an accomplished young curator, who over the past several months has been avidly engaged in researching emerging artists in all nine provinces of South Africa.

Her final selection of nominated artists will present a cross section of traditional and new media with a strong emphasis on performance based art.  The selected artists are Donna Kukama, Kemang Wa Luhelere, Mohau Modisakeng and Stuart Bird.

Donna Kukama focuses her practice in the realm of performance.  In her own words she ‘uses performance as a medium of resistance against already established “ways of doing”, and also as a strategy for inserting a foreign “other” voice and presence into various territories of the public.’ Kukama received a B-Tech from Tshwane University of Technology in 2004 and a postgraduate degree in MAPS (Masters of Arts in the Public Sphere)  from ECAV, Sierre, Switzerland in 2008.

Kemang Wa Lehulere was born in Gugulethu, Cape Town where he co-founded Gugulective in 2006. Wa Lehulere, currently based in Johannesburg, works predominantly with themes of the body and identity through the medium of performance but also produces simply-styled monochromatic paint and charcoal drawings.

Mohau Modisakeng, a recent graduate from Michaelis Art School is originally from Johannesburg.  Modisakeng’s practice focuses on installation and the sculpture of iconic symbols.  His graduate exhibition in 2009 featured an oversized wooden replica of a knife popular with tradesmen and gangsters, alongside other seemingly disparate objects: wall-mounted wooden megaphones, a large speaker placed on top of a circle of compost, and enlarged snuff boxes, also sculpted out of wood.  Also included on that show were two photographs, a sound piece, and a video work.

Stuart Bird, another Michaelis graduate, is a sculptor whose works are best known for their slick finish and short socio-political statements.  Of his process says Bird, ‘My work centres on issues relating to aspects of South African society, ranging from one-liner piss-takes of the art scene to more sombre investigations of wayward masculinity and violence.’

Commenting on what might be expected of the Award exhibition Ntombela says, ‘We can look forward to an exciting, fresh exhibition of cutting edge concepts and current contemporary ideas. The artists in the show complement yet contradict each other’s works through their use of medium.  This show will surely be a good reflection of the current contemporary practice in South Africa.  Formulating an exhibition narrative in the presentation of work will be quite exciting.’

The exhibition will open to the public on Sept 14.