Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2024 is turning it up to 11: even more you can’t miss at the 11th fair that takes place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) from 16 to 18 February.
Beyond being the biggest and best showcase of contemporary art from Africa and the world on the continent, this year Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2024, offers visitors an especially rich array of special features, highlights and extras. To celebrate its 11th year, they bring you 11 things that you simply cannot miss, including some fresh new additions to the line-up of events.
The theme for the curated sections of the 2024 edition of the fair is Unbound, aiming to break free from constrictive narratives and focus on emerging, diverse ‘unbound’ voices as a catalyst for the creation of new possibilities. More than ever, Investec Cape Town Art Fair will celebrate the city of Cape Town, Unbound, offering visitors a programme packed with opportunities to explore the artistic life of the Mother City and experience its cultural institutions, meet the artists and interact with the creative community, gaining unprecedented insight into the South African and International art world.
Fabulous first-time features will join the lineup of favourite talks, walkabouts, parties, tours and opportunities to explore the Mother City’s art ecosystem, including the Yawa Off White Capsule and Lukhanyo Mdingi collab (the first of its kind at the fair), the brand-new focus on ceramics and GENERATIONS, a debut section featuring cross-generational dialogues between artists. For the first time, five emerging artists selected from twenty artists who have been through the City of Cape Town’s Emerging Artists Programme, will be represented by a dedicated booth curated by curator Igsaan Martin. Additionally, Bo Kaap is set to bind the city with an activation which speaks to the theme of Unbound.
Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2024 invites visitors to see how the Unbound theme is interpreted in 11 ways at the 11th edition of the largest contemporary art fair in Africa.
1. Fired up – Cabinet|Clay
This year, for the first time, the Investec Cape Town Art Fair will present a special project on one of the most exciting artistic mediums emerging as a major force in contemporary artistic expression. Titled ‘Cabinet|Clay’, this project brings together a selection of ceramic works that showcase artists working in clay.
Siyabonga Fani, Ntombi Ndo (EBONY/CURATED)
2. A new GENERATION – Generations
Making its debut at this year’s fair, Generations sets artists from different generations in dialogue with each other to create intergenerational conversations and engender a deeper understanding of both emerging and established voices. By setting off interactions between a selection of 10 artists at different stages of their careers, this section aims to bring to light new insights into both evolving concerns that span generations as well as the jumps and discontinuities, intersections and departures.
What’s the ALTernative?
The popular ALT section, which made its debut in 2022, has been expanded this year. This fascinating section is dedicated to projects that reflect the “anti-booth”: the many ways in which newly established and non-traditional art project spaces have emerged as the art world has been forced to adapt to circumstance and invent ways that depart from conventional and traditional models.
3. Off the WALL
This year, WALL will explore one of the hottest and most fascinating areas of recent local art history: the development of South African modernism. WALL will present an overview of work from the 1940s to the recent past that disrupted traditional modes, challenged the art market and forged the foundations of contemporary art production. This year’s presentation begins by exploring early shifts in the palettes of the works of the likes of Gregoire Boonzaier, George Pemba and Gerard Sekoto and progresses to a more radical rethinking of representational modes in the abstract work of Cecil Skotnes, Ezrom Legae, Lucas Sithole and Edoardo Villa.
5. Global gathering
After more than a decade, the Investec Cape Town Art Fair has the unique ability to bring together artists from around the globe in a single space. Works from prominent artists from 50 countries around the world are represented by galleries far beyond the traditional art centres, co-mingling and interacting on an equal footing with those from Europe and the USA. This grand gathering offers art enthusiasts an unparalleled opportunity to appreciate emerging trends and gain insight into the forces shaping cutting-edge collections. The global gathering of artists from around the world includes – from A to Z.
6. It’s a material world
The meaningful, unconventional and original ways in which artists from Africa and the diaspora harness the expressive power of materials in contemporary art practice is nothing short of breathtaking, opening avenues of expression that can be difficult to categorise. .
7. Fashion Forward + Retail Therapy
In addition to the opportunity to purchase art, this year’s Investec Cape Town Art Fair offers a wider-than-ever range of other items for purchase, from fashion to merchandise. Beyond this dedicated retail section, the fair will also have a range of art magazines, journals and publications available for visitors to purchase.
8. Through the lens
The medium of photography has assumed a hugely significant role in the rise of contemporary art from Africa, enabling the representation of new perspectives, being harnessed in the exploration of place, history and identity, and being used by artists to develop new aesthetics. It remains a medium through which artists find seemingly unending possibilities, from conventional photography through video work and digital manipulation. And everywhere, photography and video art combined with performance, assemblage and other multimedia forms. The ongoing innovation through the medium of photography in contemporary art from Africa and the diaspora remains hugely significant and a burgeoning field of invention.
9. Cultural connections
Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2024 not only brings together galleries and artists, but also a wide range of the city’s other cultural institutions. Large foundations with private collections such as the Norval Foundation, Zeitz MOCAA, Irma Stern and the A4 Arts Foundation all play a significant role in the cultural and social life of the region, sustaining the artistic ecosystem, education and broader artistic and cultural economy as much as public museums and institutions such as Iziko Museums do.
10. Bo-Kaap and beyond
Among the events, a public art and urban intervention has been planned for the historic inner-city area of the Bo-Kaap, giving visitors a taste of how Cape Town has established itself as one of the most attractive and interesting art destinations in the world. In Bo-Kaap, two pop-up exhibitions hosted by international galleries, Galerie EIGEN + ART, will run for the duration of the Fair, from 10th to 18th February and Suburbia Contemporary, will run from 10th to 15th February. All participating Cape Town galleries will also be open with exciting exhibitions, tours and picnics taking place throughout the city. The Bo Kaap Museum will host a performance piece by Thania Petersen, accompanied by local dancers and musicians in a reimagining piece about the Cape’s history and the stories of its people.
11. Talks and walks
One of the major draw cards of the Investec Cape Town Art Fair has always been its programme of talks, dialogues, conversations, debates, discussions and presentations by artists, curators, gallerists, academics, writers and collectors. A daily programme of guided walkabouts will again be on offer this year – a perfect opportunity for first-time visitors to orient themselves, gain an overview of the offerings on the fair and establish an understanding of the artists and artworks on view. The full programme of talks and the schedule of walkabouts is available on the fair website.
The Walkabouts Programme, curated by Art School Africa, will feature walkabouts by Dr Mariella Franzoni (curator of Tomorrows/ Today), Sean O’Toole (curator of SOLO), Phokeng Setai and Alex Richards (co-founders of Exhibition Match), Natasha Becker and Amogelang Maledu (co-curators of the new GENERATIONS section), Alice Toich (Artist), Max Melvill (Creative), Karabo Morule (Entrepreneur) and Andrew Lamprecht (Curator).
Get ready for an action-packed three days at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2024 – another reason that Cape Town rated 3rd in Time Out’s World’s Best Cities for Culture
WHAT: Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2024
WHERE: Cape Town International Conference Centre, Convention Square, 1 Lower Long Street, Cape Town, 8001
WHEN: 16 to 18 February from 11h00 to 19h00.February 2024
TICKETS: Webtickets
INFO: Visit | follow Investec Cape Town Art Fair on Twitter @Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Instagram @investeccapetownartfair and Facebook @ICTArtFair. Hashtag #Investec Cape Town Art Fair
PHOTO: THEN I KNEW I WAS GOOD AT PAINTING: ESTHER MAHLANGU, A RETROSPECTIVE opening at IZIKO SA National Gallery on 17 February
