Celebrating a decade of contemporary South African art, Investec Cape Town opened its doors for its tenth edition. From modest beginnings, it is now generally acknowledged as the largest international contemporary art fair in Africa. The fair focused on the concept of time — the theme was broad, appropriately so as time is all-encompassing of ideas about the past, present, and future as well as the ever-important concept of change that comes with time. The tenth-anniversary timing for this theme was also appropriate. The fair reached its ten-year height, boasting 25 000 visitors, 106 exhibitors from 18 different countries, and 337 artists; it was the fair's largest-ever edition.
To accompany this larger-than-ever, birthday-bash edition, were some spectacular highlights that are worth celebrating especially because this fair has much to teach other fairs on the continent.
Tomorrows/Todays
Tomorrows/Todays is a curated section of solo presentations by artists set to be tomorrow’s leading names. In this iteration of the fair, Talia Ramkilawan won the prize together with BKhz Gallery for her presentation titled “Looking at the Same Moon”. Using the techniques of rug-hooking and sewing, her textiles address her experience with South African Indian identity, culture, and trauma.
Talia Ramkilawan, Love me harder, 2023, Wool and cloth on Hessian, 89 x 65cm. Image courtesy of BKhz Gallery
Co-curated by Natasha Becker and Dr. Mariella Franzoni, the 2023 Tomorrows/Today section is titled “In and Out of Time”: a homage to the renowned African-American poet Maya Angelou’s touching poem about everlasting love and suffering. The poet writes:
“I was always yours to have.
You were always mine.
We have loved each other in and out of time.”
This section is certainly a highlight of the fair, it spotlights 10 emerging artists and creates strong visibility for the work of the artists it showcases. The list of prizewinners is impressive — Troy Makaza, Bonolo Kavula, and Usha Seejarim among others. Awards of this nature are an important addition to any fair, as ICTAF has shown, many earlier prizewinners are now prominent members of the international art scene.
RESERVOIR projects at Investec Cape Town Art Fair. Image courtesy of RESERVOIR projects.
The fair organisers gave an honorable mention to Zimbabwean-born artist, Micha Serraf. Already an award-winning, concept-based photographer, Serraf’s work explores fashion, social consciousness, and conceptual portraiture. He examines the construction and deconstruction of identity, belonging, Blackness, and masculinity through his photography.
Technology and art
Returning for just a second year was the “ALT” section of the fair. Dedicated to alternative booth formats and exhibitions that reflect how technological change impacts the art world, non-traditional galleries dominated this section. Showing
digital and technology-based projects that offer a fresh interpretation of the anti-booth this section included shows from Church Projects, Bubblegum Gallery, and RESERVOIR projects. In this section artists such as Inga Somdyala, Yonela Mkoba, and Golden Dean.
Investec Cape Town Art Fair (ICTAF), 2022. Image courtesy of ICTAF
This section of the fair gives way to projects that may not necessarily always make it to the exhibition floor, it allows young, non-traditional exhibitors to showcase their artists in a nonconventional way and encourages dialogues on representation and physical versus virtual connection.
The City
This fair is interesting not only in how it celebrates art or exhibits art, but how it connects to the city, Cape Town in the days and weeks around the fair — through local institutions, artists, and bolstering the existing frameworks. The fair included studio visits in gallery spaces within the city such as Penny Siopis at Stevenson, Sue Williamson and Misheck Masamvu at Goodman Gallery, and Jody Paulsen at SMAC — all of which were booked out.
Norval Foundation showed a retrospective exhibition by respected South African artist Bearnie Searle highlighting the artist's internationally renowned video work. At A4 Arts Foundation — an arts education, incubator, and project space in the city — curator Josh Ginsberg put together an intellectually engaging and cleverly conceived international group show called “The Future is Behind Us”. Strauss & Co warmed their new auction house in Woodstock with a pan-African auction, “Curatorial Voices: Modern and Contemporary Art from Africa”, which features art by pioneering modernist and trailblazing contemporary artists from important art centres in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.
“The Future is Behind Us” curated by Josh Ginsberg at A4 Arts Foundation. Image courtesy A4
Not only do fair visitors get a chance to visit spaces outside the fair, but other art spaces in the city get to plug into the heartbeat of the fair and benefit, art fair organisers in any city would do well to connect the city to the fair in this way.