At a prestigious event held for the first time at the KZNSA Gallery on Wednesday
night (15 September 2010) , Kemang Wa Luhelere was the overall winner. Donna
Kukama, Stuart Bird and Mohau Modisakeng were the runners up.
Held every two years since 2001, this much celebrated art competition identifies four
emerging South African artists as the new stars of the South African art world, and
elects a winner among them.
The MTN New Contemporaries Award is distinctly different from conventional art
competitions in South Africa as it is entirely unsolicited by the artists it honours. The
competition also discards old stereotypes about art and foregrounds our artists as a
source of new ideas and media.
Says Nontobeko Ntombela, the 2010 New Contemporaries Award guest curator:
"This year's finalists were an exciting line-up. Their work consisted of diverse
exhibition that mixes traditional and new media within a contemporary context, and
that might variously be described as critical, socially-engaged or ironic".
One of the MTN SA Foundation's most renowned projects, the MTN New
Contemporaries Award is a competition designed to promote talented, cutting-edge
artists who have not yet received critical acclaim but who are positioned to be the
next leaders in the art field.