Award gives Pooe a leg up
PRIZE: R25 000, PLUS MATERIALS
Levy Pooe has been named the winner of the Cassirer Welz award, with Abongile Sidzumo taking the runner-up spot and Liona Nyariri third. The Cassirer Welz Award, named after South African auctioneers Reinhold Cassirer and Stephan Welz, is an annual award presented by the Bag Factory Artists’ Studios in partnership with Strauss & Co to a South African visual artist working in the mediums of painting, drawing, or sculpture.
Only artists under the age of 35 and not represented by a commercial gallery are eligible.
The selection jury, comprising Bag Factory director Candice Allison, artist Phumulani Ntuli, Strauss & Co executive director Susie Goodman and senior art specialist Wilhelm van Rensburg, unanimously agreed that Pooe is an exceptional painter who will benefit from an opportunity for substantial creative and professional growth.
As the winner of the 2020 Cassirer Welz Award, Pooe will receive a 10-week residency at the Bag Factory, from next Tuesday until 5 February and a R25 000 residency stipend, materials and production costs.
The residency culminates in a solo exhibition of newly created work at the Bag Factory from 6 February.
Founded in 2011 in partnership with Nadine Gordimer, Strauss & Co pledged to support the award after she died in 2014.
The award has helped previous winners launch their careers and make a name for themselves.
As the award reaches its 10year milestone, Strauss &Co recognise the importance of continuing the legacy.
Pooe, who was born in Rustenburg in 1994, is a Tswana-speaking visual artist, currently based in Johannesburg.
Mostly from his home studio, he works in mediums from paint, charcoal and collage to photography, Pooe is passionate about creating narratives that speak to the urban black experience.
He produces murals and creates live interpretations of musical performances.
Pooe studied towards a BA in fi ne arts at the University of the Witwatersrand, leaving before he got his degree to attend the Market Photo Workshop.
In 2013, Cape Town-based Sidzumo won the Shoprite Checkers Strokes of Genius art competition in the painting category.
He completed his degree in fine arts at the Michaelis School of Fine Art in 2019 where he was co-awarded the Simon Gerson prize for excellence.
During his final year at Michaelis in 2019, he participated in the student-run group show, Micropore, and the following year, his work was featured in
Murals and live musical performances
We’ve Come to Take You Home #1, an exhibition by the University of Cape Town. He won the Blessing Ngobeni Art Prize in 2020.
Cape Town-based Nyariri, 29, uses mythology and speculative fiction to explore pidgin languages, and written and oral traditions of Southern Africa.
Nyariri’s work has been shown in America and Cape Town.
Nyariri has also been a fellow with the Whitney Independent Study Programme at the Whitney Museum.