Art in ascension

There is always a great sense of excitement about the annual graduate show at Michaelis School of Fine Art with enthusiasts and collectors alike keeping a watchful eye on who the next stars might be from the new crop of talent.

A major highlight on the Cape Town art calendar, the year-end exhibition features works on sale by students who have completed either their bachelor’s degrees or postgraduate diplomas in fine arts.

Among the selection of paintings, sculptures, new media, prints and photographs, here are some highlights.

Make haste though as the Graduate Exhibition has a short run until Thursday at the Hiddingh Campus.

Keith Henning — “Not for public consumption”

The titillating functional artworks of sculptor/fashion designer Keith Henning “spout” provocative narratives exploring identity, sexuality and the intricacies of the human experience. 

Nina Mostert — “I had a dream on the beach and the rocks were burning”

This is printmaker Nina Mostert’s first endeavour with clay as a malleable medium of expression for her creative process, which is deeply rooted in explorations of dreams as a space for self-discovery and identity formation.

Sipho Radebe – “Portraits”

Reminiscent of forensic mapping boards seen on TV crime series, Sipho Radebe explores layered identity, psychogeography, and code-switching through collage, drawing on their Swati, isiXhosa, and amaHlubi roots. Using found fabrics, archival imagery, and family memories, Radebe reflects on grief, loss, and the tension between remembrance and erasure. The artist maps their journey through belonging and displacement, creating a fragmented yet reimagined cartography that celebrates the complexities of identity and entangled cultural narrative.

Emma Wootton – “Spectre”

Exploring the all-too-familiar “frieze” response to climate anxiety as both a personal and global phenomenon, Emma Wootton chooses to rather embrace the uncertainty and hope by challenging the doomist rhetoric of climate change, advocating for action to prevent further destructions. Inspired by catastrophic coral bleaching, the installation of ghostly monsters — part creature, part machine — evokes a haunting, precarious future without cementing a fatalistic view.