The third Joburg Art Fair will take place from the 26th to the 28th of March 2010, Sandton Convention Centre. 

As the only fair of its kind in Africa the Joburg Art Fair aims to represent the continent in making contemporary art and design more accessible and available to the public.  In its second year, the event saw a 50 percent increase in numbers, with the total visitor count rising to 10 000.

This year the line up includes 23 participating galleries showing work by over 400 artists and 40 designers from South...

The third Joburg Art Fair will take place from the 26th to the 28th of March 2010, Sandton Convention Centre. 

As the only fair of its kind in Africa the Joburg Art Fair aims to represent the continent in making contemporary art and design more accessible and available to the public.  In its second year, the event saw a 50 percent increase in numbers, with the total visitor count rising to 10 000.

This year the line up includes 23 participating galleries showing work by over 400 artists and 40 designers from South Africa and the greater continent.

Galleries who will exhibit at the 2010 Fair are Afronova Modern &  Contemporary (Johannesburg),  ARTCO Gallery (Germany), Bailey Seippel Gallery (Johannesburg), Brodie/Stevenson (Johannesburg), CCA Lagos (Nigeria), David Krut Projects (Johannesburg/New York), Everard Read Gallery (Johannesburg/Cape Town), Galerie Ames d'Afrique (France), Galerie Beatrice Binoché (Reunion), Galerie Peter Herrmann (Germany), GALLERY AOP (Johannesburg), Gallery MOMO (Johannesburg), Goodman Gallery (Johannesburg/Cape Town), iArt Gallery (Cape Town), Joao Ferreira Gallery (Cape Town), Michael Stevenson (Cape Town), October Gallery (UK), Rooke Gallery (Johannesburg), Seippel Gallery (Johannesburg/Cologne), SMAC Art Gallery (Stellenbosch), Watatu Gallery (Kenya/Switzerland) and Whatiftheworld Gallery (Cape Town).

In addition to these gallery spaces 11 special projects have been created as platforms for new and emerging artists to showcase their work, offering visitors an experience that explores the experimental and goes beyond the purely commercial.

Special projects for 2010 include a partnership showcase of art and industry working together. For this project Lawrence Lemaoana has been selected to design fabric for St Leger and Viney, a leading South African distributor of furnishing fabrics and wallpapers. This fabric will be used in dedicated spaces in the 2010 Art Fair.

Other special projects are the commissioning by Grolsch of Martli Jansen van Rensburg, an artist who works specifically with glass, to make an installation for the Fair; screening stations sponsored by DigiCape to showcase student animation and video art; the Gauteng Provincial Government Mentorship programme; and the Book Stand, amongst others.

The theme of the 2010 Joburg Art Fair is ‘Art & Industry’ and the event will present several projects examining the international move towards the beneficial collaboration between artists and industry. The Fair also aims to create a forum for exchanges and dialogues around this topic.

Following on the successful pattern of last year’s Talks programme, the Fair will present a number of informative discussions aimed at increasing art literacy and allow the public to gain knowledge of contemporary African visual art. A complete line-up of the Talks programme will be available on the Joburg Art Fair website closer to the date.

The featured artist for this year is Siemon Allen who will exhibit a body of work titled ‘RECORDS’ - a series of print enlargements of rare South African records selected from Gordon Schachat’s ongoing collection.

More details on the exhibitors, special projects and the Talks programme can be gleaned from the Joburg Art Fair website in the lead up to the event.