Bag Factory Artists’ Studios David Koloane Award Writers’ Mentorship 2017

Description

The David Koloane Award is a celebration of the life and career of Dr. David Koloane, internationally renowned artist and co-founder of the Bag Factory Artists’ Studios. For the first time, the 2017 Award was given to arts writers, instead of artists, as it has done in the past.  The Award provided three young aspiring art writers, with a two-month mentorship at the Bag Factory, guided by established South African art writers and critics Robyn Sassen and Ashraf Jamal. The programme focused on developing critical writing on contemporary visual art in South Africa. The publication includes articles written by the three young writers, Siya Masuku, Lukho Witbooi and Nolan Stevens, alongside texts by Sassen and Jamal, spanning the history of the Bag Factory Artists’ Studios to the contemporary themes emerging out of interviewed artists’ work. Stevens gives an overview of the institution through comparing the work of younger and older artists working in the studios. Masuku looks at the work of female artists in the space, past and present, and Witbooi does an in-depth analysis of Onyis Martins work, which evokes themes of memory and loss.