This Women’s Month, Play Your Part Ambassador and fine artist, Azael Langa celebrates women in art with a powerfully curated art exhibition at his studio in the heart of Johannesburg. This is in collaboration with fellow artist Khehla Chepape Makgato, to bring an innovative concept to life, where the pair will share space with three powerful up and coming female artists. The main objective is to create a platform that will help to identify new female talent, provide mentorship and opening access for female artists by connecting them to their collector’s database that has been built over time by the pair.
Launching on 15 August until 31 August 2021, the initiative will contribute to the transformation of a male dominated industry. The creative industries are an important contributor towards the culture and identity construction of any nation.
“In addition to educating communities, art inspires and evokes reflection in people. It has an amazing ability to express the soul and temperament of a nation and contributing to a positive environment to the Nation Brand. This initiative by Play Your Part Ambassador Azael Langa, which aims to celebrate women, is one that will highlight the compelling impact of women in art,” said Tshepiso Malele, Brand South Africa’s Marketing Manager.
The three nominated artists include Nomonde Fihla, an artist who was selected out of 2000 international applicants to be part of the artist-in-residence programme at the Charter d’Orquevaux in Paris, France. Her work explores the intersection between the surroundings, people, texture, colour and simplicity; Lebohang Motaung, winner of the Cartier Johannesburg Art Fair in 2017. She is a hairstylist who has used her craft as an artist to weave the most extraordinary stories about black women; and Nene Mahlangu who focuses on searching for depth and ways of navigating life connected to the experience of being a woman.
The long-term plan is to provide residency for the winning artist at the Azael Langa Studio in Johannesburg or Cape Town, with financial and non-financial support for the winner. The call for entries will commence on 15 January 2022 and the award will be announced during International Women’s Month in March 2022 where the winning artist will exhibit their work in August 2022, as part of Women’s Month commemoration.
The media are invited to attend this year’s launch as follows:
Date: 15 August 2021
Time: 14H00 – 16H00
Venue: 160 Eloff Street, Selby, Johannesburg
About Brand South Africa
Brand South Africa is the official marketing agency of South Africa, with a mandate to build the country’s brand reputation, in order to improve its global competitiveness. Its aim is also to build pride and patriotism among South Africans, in order to contribute to social cohesion and nation brand ambassadorship.
About Play Your Part
Play Your Part is a nationwide programme created to inspire, empower and celebrate active citizenship in South Africa. It aims to lift the spirit of our nation by inspiring all South Africans to contribute to positive change, become involved and start doing. A nation of people who care deeply for one another and the environment in which they live is good for everyone. The programme is aimed at all South Africans – from corporates and individuals, NGOs and government, churches and schools, from the young to the not-so-young. It aims to encourage South Africans to use some of their time, money, skills or goods to contribute to a better future for all.
About Azael Langa
Azael Langa is a practicing artist, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Langa has participated in art fairs locally and internationally, featuring in several galleries around South Africa. He also conducts outreach programmes and charity work including a charity auction in New York in 2015.
Langa’s works reflects the socio-political reality through various mediums including smoke drawing, an art form he has mastered as his signature medium. He draws from the literal and symbolic imagery about topical issues in the rich South African discourse. Langa’s work is socially sensitive, yet politically transformative, reflecting dreams, challenging beliefs and confronting our state of natural being.
His pieces are a meaningful interrogation of subjects that define our existential reality, with in-depth unstated narrative in the instantly recognisable simply expressed to evoke sentimentality. As a founding director of MOCA (Moving Contemporary Art World), Langa takes art and the business of art to the rural areas. Communities are taught the importance of fine art and its opportunities while training learners about different aspects of art as a business and career.
