FNB Art Joburg kicks off
From local and international galleries, print studios, to an indoor sculpture park, here’s what you will find at this year’s FNB Art Joburg
The benchmark South African art fair — FNB Art Joburg — opened on Friday September 8 and runs all weekend. With its mix of local and international galleries, print studios, an indoor sculpture park, talks programme and more , the art fair celebrates its 16th edition this year at its usual spacious exhibition venue in Sandton.
As the fair has grown and matured, the programming around it has truly turned September into Joburg’s Art Month, with significant events at JAG, Maboneng and at artists’ studios around the city. While some might argue there is too much going on, this seems curmudgeonly when the myriad events and spaces being activated by art across the city at the very least lift the city’s spirits from the neglect, dilapidation and danger that seems to be its current lot.
The two weeks running up to Friday’s official opening of the fair have seen the announcement of the 2023 FNB Art Joburg Art prize-winner as photographer Lindokuhle Sobekwa. This coincided with the launch of the solo show by last year’s winner, Dada Khanyisa. Significantly Khanyisa has chosen JAG as the venue, responding to the artist’s childhood memories of living in Joburg when the venerable and neglected old institution was still a city centrepiece.
The Open City component of the Joburg art month experience sees most of the city’s artists’ studio complexes, such as August House, Ellis House and Victoria Yards, open their doors for a weekend of guided tours and insights into artistic practice away from the glitz and glamour of thefair itself.
But FNB Art Joburg remains the centrepiece of all this activity. And if the VIP preview of the fair is anything to go by, it’s going to be a wild ride! As has been the case for a couple of years, the fair is divided into six sections:
- Gallery HUB, containing the country’s main established galleries. Look out for great selections at Goodman, SMAC, Stevenson and Everard Read. Smart art money will be looking at art fair specialists blank projects and Kalashnikovv.
- Gallery LAB includes smaller and more experimental galleries and project spaces.
- The MAX section is essentially a sculpture park inside the Sandton Convention Centre.
- ETC provides exhibition space for print houses and specialist art publishers.
- The AUX programme, sponsored by iTOO Artinsure, presents talks, lectures and book signings. Look out for intergenerational talks by veteran artist and activist Sue Williamson and exciting emerging talent Lebohang Kganye.
- The ORG section provides space for art and educational institutions to foreground their work.
An insider tip: a big highlight of the VIP preview was the resurrection of a 1990s installation by SA conceptualist Kendell Geers, involving free kicks of a football covered in the mask of a range of devil politicians. Exhibition Match is restaging the performance at the fair, and will make its debut on Johannesburg soil on Sunday September 10 at the Discovery Soccer Park in Sandton. This artistic project and social initiative was founded by curators Alexander Richards and Phokeng Setai in 2021, and seeks to build ‘collaboration, collective participation and play in the context of the art-world through the cultural vehicles of football and artistic production’. Check out the installation and come watch the free football tournament on Sunday as various art-world figures don the boots and show off their football skills.
Visit artjoburg.com/ for tickets and weekend programme.