Vuleka 2011 Art Competition

Annual Vuleka 2011 Art Competition Winners Announced

Antonia Steyn Overall Winner

Susan Roux: Daaglikse Brood Merit Award Winner

Lunga Kama: Ubuntu libhongo lam Merit award winner Photograph by Elizabeth Miller 窶天ermeulen

Nina Liebenberg – the Orchid Merit award winner Photograph by Elizabeth Miller-Vermeulen

Geo Westraadt, Susan Roux (merit award winner), Lunga Kama (merit award winner), Nina Liebenberg (merit award winner), Antonia Steyn (Overall winner)

Marlise Keith, Geo Westraadt, Elizabeth Miller-Vermeulen

Heidi Erdmann and Antonia Steyn

Antonia Steyn Overall Winner

Antonia Steyn Overall Winner

Antonia Steyn Overall Winner

Antonia Steyn Overall Winner

Antonia Steyn Overall Winner

Annual Vuleka Art Competition Winners Announced Art B Gallery, Bellville. Thursday 25 August 2011.

The winners of the Annual Vuleka Art Competition were announced at the opening of the Vuleka Exhibition of selected works on Wednesday 24 August 2011.

The 2011 Vuleka Art Competition would not have been possible without the assistance of generous sponsors, whose commitment to the visual arts guarantees the continuation of such an excellent art competition. The 2011 sponsors of the Vuleka Art Competition are: South African artist, Conrad Theys, Suzette Bell Roberts, Art South Africa and Omnicron.

Vuleka (the Xhosa word for ‘open’) is hosted annually by The Arts Association of Bellville. The competition is open to artists 18 years and older who have not had a solo exhibition during the preceding three years. This year, the prestigious national competition has drawn over 200 entries from across South Africa. While most of the entries were drawn from the Cape Metropole and Boland towns, some travelled from as far as Pretoria, Ceres and the Free State. A selection of 41 works is currently on exhibition in the Art.b Gallery in Bellville’s library complex (Carel van Aswegen Street, Bellville).

Susan Kruger-Grundlingh, Andrew Lamprecht and Victor Honey served as adjudicators for the competition.

The judges selected Antonia Steyn’s photographic series, titled Styen and De Villers, as the best overall work. She was awarded the R20 000.00 cash Conrad Theys Prize for the best overall work.

Steyn says this of her work: In October 2007 my surname changed. It marks the beginning of this journey. Steyn was my maiden name at birth. By marriage it became De Villiers. This is a circular journey, starting in the Western Cape where I currently live and meandering down to the Free State where my most recent ancestors are buried, and where I was born and raised. I visited six graveyards and recreated these historical spaces for myself. In these spaces, I photographed people representative of each place.

Three additional merit prizes were awarded. Each merit prize winner receives R3000.00 cash sponsored by Omnicron and Art.b Gallery as well as a year’s subscription to Art South Africa sponsored by Suzette Bell Roberts. The recipients of the merit awards are as follows: Susan Roux for her sculpture, Daaglikse Broodt, made from plastic bread ties Lunga Kama for his photograph entitled Ubuntu libhongo lam Nina Liebenberg for her sculpture made of fish bones and glass, titled The Orchid Nikita Campbell, the gallery co-ordinator at Art.b is pleased at the number of entries received and the high standard of current works on show, indicating that the Vuleka Art Competition has become nationally recognised as a respected platform for both emerging and established artists.

The works received this year are representative of a broad spectrum of cultures and mediums from the traditional to the innovative and conceptual. The 41 works selected for the exhibition are reflective of divergent styles, techniques and media. Works indicating an original concept, strong, individual expression and excellent technical execution were considered for the exhibition.

The Vuleka Art Competition is currently ranked third in stature and prestige in national competitions, after the Sasol New Signitures and the Absa L’Atelier.

This exhibition runs until 30 September 2011.