What To Expect At Investec Cape Town Art Fair In 2019

The Cape Town art scene, currently one of the fastest-growing in the world, is a compelling destination for the expected 18 000 visitors, collectors, galleries, curators, artists and art journalists from around the globe.

Local and international visitors will descend on the mother city to see work that represents the forefront of contemporary art, live performances, attend talks, soak up the sun and create connections at the forefront of the contemporary art world.

Now in its seventh edition, organizers of Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2019 have once again pulled out all the stops to ensure that visitors view the best of contemporary African, and international art and that the experience doesn’t stop at the CTICC doors.

Enter three must-see experiences centred on the artists’, galleries and exhibitions taking place at Investec Cape Town Art Fair and beyond.

1. Tomorrow’s talent today

TOMORROWS/TODAY is a curated cross-section of the most exciting emerging and under recognized artists from Africa and around the world selected by Investec Cape Town Art Fair curator Tumelo Mosaka.

 The local art scene is not short of rising stars, nor is it short of blazing stars. The point is how to get the one to develop into the other. “For Investec Cape Town Art Fair visitors who intend investing in the future, or invest their time in exploring the present, it’s important that the art fair sets the bar while ushering in a new crop of artists, annually,” says Mosaka. “For this reason the fair has established this major platform.”

As the title implies, the ongoing theme is one of transformation showcasing the most thought provoking voices. Mosaka will also head up a jury that will award the annual cash prize to the most promising and dynamic booth from the section.

2. Digital directions

The 2019 incarnation of the ongoing SOLO section of Investec Cape Town Art Fair will explore the effects of the digital world on our lived realities. As its name suggests, the extensive exhibition will include solo presentations. But this year it is the mediums that will bear the message as artworks reflective of new and traditional skill sets that will hold a deep conversation with one another. So get into the unstable relationship between the physical and digital space, the real and hyperreal.

By progressing to new traditions it is hoped that emerging practitioners and collectors will begin to think more analytically about how the digital world impacts art. Digital practices may be a powerful force in our everyday lives, yet in our context there has not been enough opportunity in the visual arts allowing practitioners from different strata to exhibit alongside one another.

3. Larger than life

Last year, artists Lungiswa Gqunta, Turiya Magadlela and Sethembile Msezane were commissioned to present installations about the everyday lives of ordinary women, elevating somewhat mundane objects to tools of disruption. This ushered in a new perspective on the Unframed section of Investec Cape Town Art Fair in which the fair itself would function as a platform for the commissioning of new work, thereby creating impact beyond the confines of the art fair.

The Unframed section of the fair is a welcome activation in which highly regarded rising stars are able to commune with their public and allows visitors to experience installation outside of the gallery booth context.

Investec Cape Town Art Fair runs from Friday 15 to Sunday 17 February 2019. For more information, visit www.investeccapetownartfair.co.za.

Follow Investec Cape Town Art Fair on Twitter @ictartfair, Instagram @investeccapetownartfair and facebook www.facebook.com/ICTArtFair/  #ICTAF