Art for Africa

The FNB Joburg Art Fair was founded in 2008 as the first art fair on the African continent. From the beginning, Artlogic has aimed to bring together the best of contemporary art from Africa, and to create a platform on which the continent’s artists, curators, collectors, writers and art lovers can congregate.

Over the past five years the fair has also hosted top international curators and directors from institutions such as the Tate Modern and the Venice Biennale, but more importantly it has helped to build a solid base of buyers from South Africa and the continent. For this year’s edition, there is a carefully curated selection of forward-thinking galleries, special projects and developmental programmes.

Six foreign countries are represented: England, France, Germany, Mozambique, Spain and Zimbabwe.

The 2013 fair has photography as its focus, and as such, this year’s programme will house the biggest selection of photography under one roof. Some of the special projects surrounding this medium are: The Featured Artist Space, which will present a solo show of David Goldblatt, acclaimed South African documentary photographer and founder of the Market Photo Workshop, as well as a retrospective of the work of photographer Roger Ballen by the Circa Gallery Space and more.

A video art installation by Mohau Modisakeng in the new curated section, Video art Powered By Samsung, will be launched at this year’s event.

The FNB Art Prize winner will receive a R100 000 cash prize as well as a booth in which to showcase their work at this year’s Fair.

All galleries that take part in the fair are given the opportunity to submit one of their artists.

The guest judges this year are Elvira Dyangani Ose, Curator for International Art at the Tate Modern, and Federico Freschi, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Art, design and Architecture at the University of Johannesburg.