Lindokuhle Sobekwa scoops FNB Art Joburg prize
The 2023 FNB Art Joburg jury described Lindokule Sobekwa’s work as representing an explicitly South African narrative and brings into sharp focus a poignant reality in which both strife and soft moments exist - exposing, questioning and reflecting on current times and experiences.
Lindokuhle Sobekwa, an artist working in the medium of documentary photography, has been named the 2023 FNB Art Joburg prize winner.
Sobekwa’s practice uses the camera to historically contemplate the present with his photography work which is soaked in materialism and subtly resolving geographical and temporal distances, in his hand, the camera invites absent presences that were there when his images were made into the present.
The jury for this year’s prize was made up of Krone marketing manager Abigail Rands; collector, philanthropist and radiologist Dr Joy Simmons; and FNB Art Joburg representative and Fair manager Kim Kandan.
On their award decision, the jury said, Lindokule’s work represents an explicitly South African narrative and brings into sharp focus a poignant reality in which both strife and soft moments exist – exposing, questioning and reflecting on current times and experiences.
By virtue of his winning the prize, Sobekwa becomes the first documentarian to join previous winners Dada Khanyisa, Wycliffe Mundopa, Lady Skollie, Bronwyn Katz, Haroon Gunn-Salie, Peju Alatise, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Turiya Magadlela, Portia Zvavahera, Nelisiwe Xaba, Mocke J van Veuren, and Kudzanai Chiurai.
FNB chief marketing officer Faye Mfikwe said congratulated Lindokuhle saying the award was created to recognise talent and innovation in the arts. “We are delighted to see artists pushing the boundaries of conventional thinking through creative expression.”
Born in Katlehong, Johannesburg, Sobekwa is from a generation of South African photographers born after the first democratic elections of 1994. Through his participation in the Of Soul and Joy photography education programme in Thokoza in 2012, he realised that the medium of photography would be essential in telling stories that interest and concern him.
“When you look back at the calibre of artists who have won this prize, they are awe-inspiring to the public and their peers. They find new ways to use existing materials to interrogate important issues,” FNB Art Joburg’s managing director Mandla Sibeko said.
“Lindokuhle is no different because the way he works with the camera has managed to continue the reflective, conscious and delicate legacies left behind by the likes of Ernest Cole.”
Connecting the dots of kinship and allegiance within the photographic terrain Sobekwa recalls the first time he encountered Ernest Cole’s work at the age of 17. “House of Bondage became a great reference in terms of what I was pursuing in my language as a photographer,” said Sobekwa.
In 2014, Sobekwa’s photo essay Nyaope was published in several platforms including the Mail & Guardian, Vice magazine’s annual Photo Issue and the Belgian publication, De Standaard.
Thereafter he received a scholarship to study at The Market Photo Workshop where he refined his approach to the camera in both concept and technique. Since then, Sobekwa’s success has included being selected by the Magnum Foundation for Photography and Social Justice in New York to develop his project, I Carry Her Photo of Me. Two years later, the hand-made photo book was included in the African Cosmologies exhibition at the FotoFest Biennial Houston.
In 2022, the artist made his museum show debut at Huis Marseille in the Netherlands before becoming a member of Magnum Photos and receiving the inaugural John Kobal Foundation Fellowship.
As the winner of the 2023 prize, Sobekwa will receive a cash prize as well as a solo exhibition at Johannesburg Art Gallery where the largest art collection, on the continent, resides.
Details: https://artjoburg.com
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