Meet our judges: Nelmarie du Preez

Nelmarie du Preez was the overall winner of The Sasol New Signatures competition in 2015 and she has been selected to be part of our 2017 judging panel. As a lecturer in Visual Arts and New Media at UNISA, we were keen to get her perspective on 2017’s competition.

In your opinion, how important is the Sasol New Signatures in the world of South African Art?
For any emerging South African artist it is essential to apply for the Sasol New Signatures competition. It offers high-profile exposure for artists looking to break into the art world and is a great platform to create consciousness around what contemporary art is and can be.  

Having won the competition previously as well as having held your solo exhibition, what has the competition done for you and your career?
It has given me a kind of ‘stamp of approval’ and a launch pad for my artistic career.  I have since had numerous exhibition opportunities and also the chance to sell some of my videos.

As a judge this year what are you hoping to discover?
I will be looking out for artists addressing aspects of humanity through aesthetic investigations that hold the audience's attention. I am particularly interested in artists that do not follow trends but are re-defining the way we understand what art can be.

What would you say to artists wanting to enter the competition?
Stick to what your passion is and allow the audience to enter into your world. Don’t make an artwork for the sake of entering a competition, but rather for the experience you will get from researching, making and showing the work.

Can you identify the current direction of South African art?
What I enjoy most about art is that it can be whatever we want it to be, since it constantly adjusts itself to our current way of being.  I am always interested in art that questions our relationships with each other and how this is mediated through various technologies.

What are you focussed on right now?
At the moment I am developing a new body of work and am also spending a lot of time researching and developing proposals for various local and international platforms. The scope of the job is limitless.