Metro announces winners of Thami Mnyele Fine Arts Awards
Topical issues such as acid mine drainage, child rape and lineage are the subject of the winning art works at this year's Thami Mnyele Fine Arts Awards.
The top prize at the national art competition – an initiative by the City of Ekurhuleni – was handed to University of Pretoria student Loiuse Kritzinger, for her sculpture, titled “Pyrrhic Victory”.
Through the mediums of steel, water, metallic powder and soap, Kritzinger managed to construct the piece that has won the R40 000 first prize.
“Pyrrhic Victory” was seen by the judges as a thought-provoking piece, which addresses the controversial matter of acid mine drainage.
The winner of the Ekurhuleni Prize, which is awarded to an artist who hails from the city, is crafter Sinalo Ntuli, for his beads-on-canvas work titled “The Lead Singer”.
This is his second attempt at the top prize, and he has come close by being awarded R30 000 for the work, which took two to three months to complete.
First year students at the Artist Proof Studio got a taste of the rewarding side of being an artist when they were presented with the Art on Paper Merit Award for their five-piece entry, titled “Icon in my Community”.
Tanisha Bhana, who is a lawyer, took home the Multi and New Media/Photography Merit Award for “Graceland”, a pigment print on archival paper.
The Painting Merit Award went to another Ekurhuleni resident, Liberty Battson from Benoni, for her painting, which calls for South African to be activists on issues regarding child rape.
The piece is titled “This is Sensational”.
Danette Janse van Rensburg took home the Sculpture Merit Award for the poplar and partridge wood and cast bronze work titled “Blood is Thicker than Water”.
A total of 272 entries were received from all over the country.
Of these, 80 artists were selected for the exhibition, which opened on Saturday, September 21, after the prize-giving ceremony, and will run until October 13, at the Coen Scholtz Recreation Centre, in Birch Acres, Kempton Park.
The adjudication panel consisted of:
The adjudicators for the 2013 Thami Mnyele Fine Arts Awards competition are:
Bongi Mautloa Dhlomo, Pieter Swanepoel, Lwandiso Njara,, Reshma Chhiba and Leanne Engelberg.
The winners will receive their prizes at the official opening and prize giving ceremony:
Date: Saturday 21 September 2013
Time: 18:00
Venue: Exhibition to run until 13 October 2013
Members of the public are welcome to come and take advantage of this fantastic opportunity to view a diverse range of contemporary art in one venue.
The exhibition will be open free of charge for public viewing from Monday 22 September 2013 until Sunday 13 October 2013. The Coen Scholtz Recreation Centre will be open (free of charge) weekdays 9:00 – 16:30.
