Young/Unframed is aimed at creating opportunities for identifying and including young creatives who are less represented in South Africa’s creative industry, and we strongly encourage applications from women of colour, persons who identify as LGBTQI+, and persons living with physical and/or mental disabilities.
The Bag Factory has invited emerging artists and aspiring curators for an opportunity to have a solo exhibition under the Young/Unframed exhibition programme. Throughout 2023, the Bag Factory will commission three artists to produce new work for their first solo presentation in Johannesburg. Each artist will receive financial and curatorial support, and the space to experiment using the Bag Factory’s gallery to create new and/or site-specific work. Each artist will collaborate with an emerging curator who will receive hands-on practical experience and mentorship from the Bag Factory’s team to realise the exhibition.
Artist support includes Curatorial and pastoral support from the Bag Factory’s staff and the guest curator, financial support covering the costs of a physical exhibition at the Bag Factory and a digital version of the exhibition which will showcased on the Bag Factory’s website.
The Young/Unframed Project is supported by the Department of Sports, Arts & Culture. Republic of South Africa and National Arts Council
ARTISTS
Nonceba Dwanya
Nonceba is a fashion media graduate, athlete, business owner, and designer. This young multifaceted creative disperse talents to flow through her work, expressed in her techniques and art styles. Nonceba showcased her first body of work in June 2023, utilizing fine arts and mixed media portraiture to explore and expand her craft and uncover knowledge of her unconfronted parts of herself.
Smiso Cele
Smiso is a Johannesburg-based artist completing his BA in Visual Arts at the University of Johannesburg. A passionate emerging artist, Cele chose Visual Arts in high school and attended workshops to enhance his artistic abilities. In his latest works he explores his interest in printmaking and drawing, trying to merge the two. He enjoys exploring various mediums to challenge traditional drawing conventions as a means to strengthen his skillset.
Tshepo Phokojoe
Tshepo Phokojoe, is a Johannesburg based self-taught multidisciplinary artist with a background in visual arts and fashion. Tshepo has received numerous awards, including the 2017 PPC Imaginarium Merit award for Fashion and the 2023 Blessing Ngobeni Art Prize.
CURATORS
Motheo Mamabolo
Motheo is an interdisciplinary artist and curator, born and raised in Mahikeng, South Africa. Their works explores the integration of the human psyche into the new digital world, investigates the histories of Bophuthatswana and applies teachings of heritage versus heresy. Through performance, video & audio making, Motheo investigates and applies indigenous sciences and storytelling methodologies to areas of social development and innovation.
Amina Malatji
Amina was born in Johannesburg, in the first spring of this country’s democracy. Her ancestral home and ties lie in Limpopo, Tzaneen. Graduating with a BA Honours in History at the University of the Western Cape with her research focus on the historiography of Balobedu. Her work is inspired by her people, their heritage and their stories. Malatji’s second love, after her mother, is writing and storytelling.
Kamogelo Walaza
Kamogelo is a multidisciplinary artist with a Postgraduate Diploma in Arts, and holds three BA Honours degrees in Drama Therapy, Communication Studies, and Public Management and Governance and a Bachelor of Arts in Corporate Communications.She is a Masters candidate in Applied Drama at The University of Witwatersrand, where she conducts auto ethnographic research on Black middle-class women's identity in the arts industry. She is currently an Independent Curator, arts education facilitator, dedicated writer, and ethnographer.
