The 2010 Standard Band Young Artist Award winners were announced on Thursday November 5, at a function hosted by Standard Bank at the Emoyeni Conference Centre in Parktown, Johannesburg.

The winner for the category of Visual Art is Johannesburg-based artist and graphic designer Michael MacGarry. As an artist, MacGarry has an overarching concern with the machinations of imperialism in Africa and works in various media, from sculpture to large-scale photography, video and editioned bronzes.

He is represented by Brodie/Stevenson...

The 2010 Standard Band Young Artist Award winners were announced on Thursday November 5, at a function hosted by Standard Bank at the Emoyeni Conference Centre in Parktown, Johannesburg.

The winner for the category of Visual Art is Johannesburg-based artist and graphic designer Michael MacGarry. As an artist, MacGarry has an overarching concern with the machinations of imperialism in Africa and works in various media, from sculpture to large-scale photography, video and editioned bronzes.

He is represented by Brodie/Stevenson Gallery through which he has exhibited twice at Johannesburg Art Fair and will exhibit again next year. He also exhibited his 2008 solo exhibition ‘When enough people start saying the same thing’ at the gallery.

In 2008 MacGarry was a finalist in the MTN New Contemporaries Award and exhibited as part of several group exhibitions in Johannesburg, Durban, New York and Berlin. He also curated a group show of eleven leading South African graphic designers and illustrators at DK Projects in Johannesburg as well as launching A Primer in South African Graphic Design, a book which he wrote, designed and illustrated.

About the award MacGarry had this to say: ‘This unique award represents a substantial vote of confidence and a show of institutional support in my career. As a young artist one cannot ask for better.’

MacGarry, who is part of the collective AVANT CAR GUARD, currently works at Fever Identity Design in Johannesburg as a graphic designer.

The winners in the other categories of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award are equally diverse in their talents. Mlu Zondi, who is no stranger to the Visual Arts and a previous winner of the MTN New Contemporaries Award in 2006, received the Young Artist award for Dance. Claire Angelique, who is also a video artist, is the first woman to receive the award for the category of Film. Samson Diamond received the award for Music, Janni Young for Theatre, Melanie Scholtz for Jazz.

As part of their prize, each of the winners will be featured on the Main Programme of the 2010 National Arts Festival in Grahamstown from June 20 to July 4, 2010.