Final Regional Judging in the bag

The regional judging panels have been hard at work traveling across South Africa, viewing over 600 entries and selecting 119 works for the 2017 Sasol New Signatures exhibition. The countdown has started for the big reveal on Wednesday, 30th August when seven finalists from this elite group will be announced.
With over 100 works shortlisted, the competition is going to be tough and the judges have a challenging time ahead of them before the final decision on the overall winner, runner up and five merit award winners can be made.

A prominent feature of this competition is the opportunity for entrants to attend feedback sessions whereby they are able to hear their work critiqued, which is hugely valuable to any artist looking to make a breakthrough. Plus artists can engage with judges to gain insight into issues such as pricing, presentation and how to approach art galleries.  Dr. Pieter Binsbergen, Sasol New Signatures chairperson who was in attendance at all regional judging sessions commented : “This competition is an exciting opportunity to look at work from emerging, young artists on the verge of a professional career and feedback sessions encourage artists to evolve and progress,”

Sasol New Signatures is South Africa’s longest standing art competition and is an important developmental journey for artists who this year tackled notable topics of cultural and personal identity, and issues pertaining to current environmental, political and social justice. Regional judge, Brenton Maart who was at the University of Johannesburg session, noted that “ entries were a good barometer of emerging contemporary production”.  The judges also saw a strong theme of “materiality” with a re-investigation and re-purposing of found and consciously selected material and robust submissions of mixed media featuring unconventional materials like crystals, combinations of wire, fabric, folded paper, nails, plastic and ceramics. Not to be left out, digital works also featured strongly and were said to be “very relevant, very today” by Binsgergen.

Judging a large number of entries of diverse mediums is a tough job but the judges consistently  adhered to three different criteria when judging, namely: concept, technique and presentation and successful pieces were well conceptualized, well executed and well presented. Regional judge Yolanda de Kock who at the Bloemfontein sessions said she found the selected works to be of “excellent quality”.

The national judging panel now has a busy and exciting time ahead of them as they focus on the shortlisted entries and start their search for the seven finalists. D-day is Wednesday 30th August when the winner of Sasol New Signatures competition will be announced at a ceremony held at the Pretoria Art Museum. Another compelling element of this competition is that all  the finalists’ works will be displayed at the Pretoria Art Museum until the 8th October 2017 and are up for sale which means art collectors can purchase excellent works at great prices!