Sasol Wax Art Award finalists
Ten finalists have been named for the Sasol Wax Art Award, launched late last year to reward professional artists for their contribution to innovation and excellence in the visual arts. The key word here is 'professional': the organisers felt that while there are many competitions for young and emerging artists, few opportunities exist to recognise established and mid- career artists in South Africa.
Selected as semi-finalists, from 121 nominations countrywide, are artists Manfred Zylla, Kim Berman, Pat Mautloa, Wim Botha, Andrew Tshabangu, Diane Victor, Dorothee Kreutzfeldt, Jeremy Wafer, Usha Seejarim and Alan Alborough.
According to organiser, Carola Ross, 'We received many more nominations than anticipated, given the strict entry criteria. The semi-finalists were selected based on their career profiles, all of them having demonstrated years of committed and consistently high quality activity within the sector.'
Selected artists now have a month to draft a proposal for a body work that features wax as its main component, as either process, medium or concept. From these proposals, five artists will be commissioned to create works for exhibition, and one will stand in line to win the R 130 000 purse. Sponsored by Sasol, the world's largest producer of wax, the commissioned works will demonstrate either innovation or excellence (or both) in the application of wax in their work.
The finalists' exhibition and announcement of the Award winner will be held in Johannesburg later this year.
Further information is from Award organisers, Carola Ross and Associates on (011) 726 2502 or email hotmango@mweb.co.za
