EMIHLE MBANGATHA
Clarendon High School for Girls’ (CGHS) Lukonde Mwanza is the best public school visual artist in the country after her entry for the 60th SA Pavilion Schools competition in Johannesburg this past weekend, took first place.
The exhibition’s themes touched on the nexus between the environment and sociopolitical factors, such as land dispossession and displacement.
Entitled, Quiet Ground, the call for entries to the exhibition encouraged pupils to consider their connections with heritages of land and tradition in contemporary society.
The competition is an extension of the Venice Biennale, an international art exhibition that features excellent contemporary art, architecture, and other performing arts.
Being invited to exhibit at the SA Pavilion Schools competition is a nod to one’s exceptional technical skill and blooming potential and invitations are extended to few. This year only nine pupils were invited to exhibit at the Keyes Art Mile Gallery Atrium in Rosebank, Johannesburg, including three CGHS matriculants; competition winner Mwanza, Lungelo Mazibuko and Anuschka de Jager.
Lukonde’s work is a mixed media marvel inspired by her brother and celebrates the diversity of wildlife and nature, with a zebra motif throughout the piece, symbolising her family’s traditional totem. Her piece is visually arresting and evocative of the country’s continually complex relationship with land. In 2024, it was selected as the cover art for English Alive, a schools’ poetry anthology.
Mwanza, who hopes to integrate art into a career in architecture, credits her high school years for deepening her passion and honing her skills. Her art teacher, Natalie van Wyk, praised the work’s technical execution and layered meaning, drawing parallels between the framing of the boy in the painting and the way poetry expresses different perspectives.
Mwanza’s first place was followed by a runner-up award for Mazibuko, whose canvases encapsulate the dichotomies in different experiences of the land. She was among the few invited to showcase three pieces of work — a feat she sacrificed a great deal to achieve given the emotional weight that went into each piece.
Mwanza, who has loved art her whole life, said: “Knowing that my art was exhibited makes all the emotions and energy I put in them worth it.
“I thought since there are so many other talented artists in SA, my chances of selection were slim. I was extremely shocked to see that three of my artworks were chosen and I had made the top nine finalists.
“It really means a lot to me. Seeing the growth in my art and it being noticed like this makes me feel grateful and special. Any career I pursue in the future, I’m hoping it will have art incorporated into it.”
De Jager, who dedicated 15 hours to complete her pieces, said it was an honour to have been considered. Having previously exhibited at the Ann Bryant Art Gallery and Umtiza Art Festival, she said she never imagined her work reaching a national level.
