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Mandy Johnston’s latest exhibition uses burning steel wool sculptures and ash paintings to explore ritual, transformation and the transitions that shape our lives

Mandy Johnston wants to burn things to bring back traditions

The Joburg-born artist’s latest exhibition uses burning steel wool sculptures and ash paintings to explore ritual, transformation and the transitions that shape our lives

Outdoor art: Mankebe Seakgoe’s When the Sky Opened Up and Swallowed us Whole (2023), charcoal on canvas.
Photos: Supplied

Outside the white cube, art learns to breathe again

A group exhibition in North West challenged institutional norms, inviting artists and audiences to rethink experimentation, community and artistic freedom

Poet-activist: Vusi Mahlasela came of age in a community defined by oppression and extraordinary creative resilience. Photo: Gallo Record Company

Vusi Mahlasela has never stopped singing for change

South Africa’s most beloved troubadour on new music, staying rooted in Mamelodi and why peace is worth singing about

Deconstructed ballet: Hatched Ensemble speaks to anyone who has felt conflicted about their own identity
and where they belong in the status quo. Photo: Val Adamson

Mamela Nyamza’s global triumph, ‘Hatched Ensemble’, comes home for two nights only

Internationally celebrated dancer Mamela Nyamza returns home with two powerful productions interrogating identity, colonial legacies and belonging through bold, deconstructed…

Winning streak: A still from Sierra’s Gold. The thrilling comedy film has been on an impressive run of international film festival appearances and award wins. Photos: Supplied

Sihle-isipho Nontshokweni Shines in Sierra’s Gold, Wins Best Actress

In a triumphant comeback, Sihle-isipho Nontshokweni captivates audiences and critics alike, winning Best Actress for her raw and magnetic performance in Sierra’s Gold

Set for the stage: Ndumiso Manana is preparing for the first leg of a nationwide tour that begins in Johannesburg before moving to East London, Makhanda for the National Arts Festival, Durban, Cape Town and Pretoria.  Photo: Supplied

Manana and the art of trusting the process

Fresh off his Standard Bank Young Artist win, Manana reflects on growth, collaboration and creating space for alternative sound in South Africa

Back to love: Judith Sephuma on legacy, music and the long road home

From global stages to intimate performances, Judith Sephuma shares what has sustained her career and what she hopes to build

Quietly radical: Zee Nxumalo occupies a rare position in South African music, both a product of a digital
moment and a shaper of it. Photo: Supplied

Zee Nxumalo isn’t chasing depth — she’s living it

At 23, the singer-songwriter is shaping South African music on her own terms, blending beats, introspection and a fearless sense of self

Investec Cape Town Art Fair names its 2026 award winners

The Investec Cape Town Art Fair announces its 2026 prize winners, spotlighting artists whose practices are reshaping contemporary conversations around material, image and digital…

The president did highlight investment in digital infrastructure and data centres, gestures that could, in theory, benefit streaming, gaming and digital content production. (GCIS)

Sona 2026 leaves the creative sector behind

South Africa’s creative sector went into the State of the Nation address with a clear demand: recognition, reform and rescue. What it received was silence. Just days before…

For Manana, touring is about more than performance. It’s about truth. “Live is the last real thing in music,” he says.

“Live is the last real thing”: Manana enters a warmer era

With live instruments and honest energy, Manana proves the stage is still where music tells the truth

Paid her dues: Lady Zamar describes the album as a declaration of clarity and creative independence, a
celebration of survival and triumph after missteps, misjudgements and misrepresentation. Photo: Supplied

From healing to victory

In this candid conversation, Lady Zamar opens up about the making of ‘Emperor Eclipse’, her creative process and what life after healing means to her

Pearl Thusi is an ever-evolving creative force stepping into a powerful musical rebirth where her sound
becomes a picture and her story finds new voice. Photo: Supplied

Pearl Thusi: A daughter’s offering

A cinematic Afrosoul offering, Sodwa captures Pearl Thusi’s journey into music through nostalgia, collaboration and deep emotional clarity

Paid a pittance: The artist’s path is never linear, but it has over the years become increasingly unsustainable. Photo: Unsplash

The cost of creativity

South African artists keep dying poor while their work enriches others. The Copyright Amendment Bill could finally change that – if it ever becomes law

All that glitters: Artist Johnathan Schultz’s most distinctive and dominant medium is gold. Photo: Sonder Rose Media

Typos & change: Jonathan Schultz and the alchemy of identity

In his latest body of work, Johnathan Schultz trades spectacle for soul, reimagining gold as a vessel for memory, resilience and identity

Travelling together: Jesse Clegg and Msaki collaborated on Entropy, which is due to be released in January. Photo: Marty Bleazard

Msaki and Jesse Clegg on friendship, chaos and creation

When two artists stopped planning and started listening, they found music, and meaning, in the natural disorder of life

Take a bow: Siya Charles, winner of this year’s Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Jazz performs on stage. Photo: Mark Wessels

Art, politics and integrity: The Standard Bank Young Artist Award then and now

Ahead of the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz, Kwanele Sosibo interviews this year’s music and jazz SBYA winners for their reflections on the history and meaning of the awards

Consuming passion: Nolan Oswald Dennis’s installation garden for Fanon, in which earthworms turn a book by 20th-century political philosopher Frantz Fanon into soil. Photos: Anthea Pokroy

The garden that eats Frantz Fanon

Artist Nolan Oswald Dennis’s installation turns theory into soil, questioning who gets to decide what’s important — and why

Arts & Culture Trust Nyoloha Scholarship Programme applications close 30 March

Press release: The ACT Nyoloha Scholarship offers up to R300 000 for young South African artists

Bring him back home: Jazz drummer Kesivan Naidoo, who now lives in Switzerland, will be performing work commemorating 30 years of democracy in South Africa. Photo: Jacqui van Staden

Jazz in the key of freedom

Kesivan Naidoo blends local jazz with global influences to mark 30 years of democracy