FNB Art Joburg 2026: Champagne, camera obscuras and a reckoning with women’s role in liberation

The first Thursday of spring bloomed with the 19th edition of FNB Art Joburg, and by all accounts, the opening night lived up to the hype.

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Running from 4 to 6 September at the Sandton Convention Centre, this year’s fair brings together more than 100 artists, established galleries and emerging exhibitors across eight curated sections, including ARC, a new addition dedicated to solo presentations.

Champagne, camera obscuras and a crowd that became the art

For Mel Madiba, who covered opening night, the atmosphere was electric from the first pour.

“The opening night was marked by a lively atmosphere, with guests and champagne flowing through curated sections, viewing works and engaging with artists and exhibitors,” Madiba said. “As always, the crowd itself became part of the evening’s visual landscape, with artists, influencers, and creatives blurring lines between art, fashion, and pop culture in style and personality.”

Beyond the socialising, Madiba pointed to fair manager Kim Kandan’s conceptual exhibition “From Whose Waters Do We Drink?” as a must-see, describing it as a reflection on indigenous knowledge systems and cosmovisions where knowledge is shared rather than owned.

Inside George Mahashe’s camera obscura. Picture: Mel Madiba

“A standout work would be George Mahashe’s camera obscura. The installation allows the camera to be more than an instrument; it’s also a different space and experience of the fair itself. You can touch the soft canvas and watch the live feed of the fair shift in and out of focus. It’s easy to miss, so be on the lookout for it,” she further explained.

This year’s fair also crowned its 2026 FNB Art Prize winner: Botswana-born sculptor Kelebogile Marope, the first artist from that country to receive the honour. Her practice, which draws on domestic spaces and everyday materials to explore memory and belonging, earned her a solo exhibition at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, set for 2027.

FNB Art Prize Winner 2026 Kelebogile Marope. Picture: Supplied, FNB

Reclaiming a forgotten history

Away from the main fair floor, one of the week’s more pointed conversations, set for Saturday, 5 September, will focus on MBR Projects’ exhibition “Women’s March to Freedom,” staged at FNB Art Joburg in collaboration with the Alf Kumalo Estate, Jonathan Ball Publishers and Exclusive Books.

Curated around Alf Kumalo’s archive, the exhibition revisits the 1956 women’s march to the Union Buildings, led by figures including Lilian Ngoyi, Rahima Moosa, Helen Joseph and Sophie Williams-De Bruyn.

Miriam Makeba experiences a moment in New York that would have been impossible in her home country, South Africa. Picture: Captured by Alf Kumalo, supplied by MBR Projects & Olamuk

Ahead of Saturday’s panel discussion, MBR Projects co-founder Siwa Mgoboza shared his hopes for the project with The Citizen.

“Our mandate has always been to share these important moments of our shared history with the public. Looking into the archive of Alf Kumalo revealed to us that the women have always been a part of the struggle and their involvement in liberation needs to be celebrated more often, not just during the ‘public holidays’, as we all know those days turn into ‘braai days’ and we’ve forgotten what they were intended for,” Mgoboza said.

He added that the response so far reinforced why the exhibition mattered.

“We are looking forward to engaging with people; these images are a part of the social fabric of South Africa, so many people have different memories and stories of the documented moments,” he said.

“Just from opening night, so many people shared memories of where they were, what they remember, how the image or figure in the images changed something in them, and that is the ultimate goal.”

A dapper Alf Kumalo poses in front of his own camera in the early 1960s. Picture: Supplied, MBR Projects and Olamuk

The panel discussion falls on a day that would have been Alf Kumalo’s 96th birthday and will take place on the mezzanine-level talk space at the Sandton Convention Centre, bringing together academic Hlonipha Mokoena, Nonhlanhla Kumalo (daughter of Alf Kumalo and head of the Alf Kumalo Estate), and Christa Dee, formerly of Goodman Gallery and now heading programming at Pro Helvetia.

Lindiwe Mngxitama will moderate.

FNB Art Joburg runs until Sunday, 6 September, at the Sandton Convention Centre.

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