Thanks to the Joan Emanuel Trust, the KwaZulu-Natal Society of Arts has for many years awarded generous prizes for an annual exhibition of art submitted by its members. As the numbers of submissions have increased over the past few years, KZNSA has decided to take this opportunity to develop the competition into a nationally recognised group show of exciting KZN work.

2020 MEMBER AWARDS WINNERS

First Prize: Kenneth Shandu

Second Prize: Ann-Marie Nason

Third Prize: Camilla Kinnear

KZNSA Merit Award: Siphesihle Ntsangwana

The Member Awards are adjudicated by an independent panel of judges. Submissions that were not selected for judging, but respond to the criteria, are installed in the gallery as part of the final exhibition. Our judges this year are: Dr. Bajabulile Dhlamini, co-curator of Ikhono LaseNatali and Project Manager of Muholi Productions, Ismail Farouk, from DUT’s Art for Humanity, and Tamlin Blake, senior curator at the Spier Arts Trust.

2020 THEME: X

The antepenultimate letter of the English alphabet, X serves as an essential representation of variability and the unknown. Used to indicate a number or name that is not known or stated in maths or legal documents, the letter was appropriated by civil rights activist Malcolm X to sybolise the African family name he could never know. X has been recognised as the non-binary symbol for gender in pronouns and titles, and adopted as a feminist symbol by many womxn.

It is the mark we are forced make when voting, and which illiterate people were urged to use as a stand-in signature.

It stands for affection in our social media, hidden treasure on a pirate map and the Roman numeral 10, as well as a mark for something incorrect and a whole lot more.

What can it inspire in art?