6 artworks selected from 41 submitted works
LAME BOGATSU
Artists whose art works have been submitted to the LAtelier Art competition will help expose Botswana talent and put it on the world map.
This is according to Thapong Visual Arts, Mesh, who was speaking at the Octagon National Art Gallery in Gaborone last week- where six local artworks were selected in the Botswana LAtelier Art Competition.
I am glad that our local artists are also starting to enjoy having their works shown in bigger platforms outside of Botswana as this will also make people notice our local talent and place us on an international map, says Moeti.
He made these remarks when commending Barclays Bank and other stakeholders for contributing towards the growth of the local arts industry, for which he said a lot of support is needed.
Six art works were selected following the submission of 41 works for the Botswana LAtelier Art competition which is designed to select works which will represent the country in South Africa at the continental version of the competition.
The competition is also entered by artists from South Africa Zambia, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Egypt, Mauritius and Seychelles.
We received 41 artworks from the categories of photography, drawing, mixed media, sculpture and painting and from the works that were submitted; we noticed a huge improvement from last years competition. Our artists artworks are more engaging and their craftsmanship has improved drastically, said Tom Ketlogetswe, a local judge.
He also explained that in this years competition, they were looking for craftsmanship and aesthetic appeal, The adjudication depended largely on rules of the competition from South Africa. This is a contemporary art competition, so a lot of the works needed to go that route, they had to create a dialogue, break the rules and be engaging, said Ketlogetswe .
One of the marked improvements of this years competition which did not escape the attention of museum curator Monica Selelo, is the growing number of female participants.
Our biggest concern last year was that there was a very small participation from our female counterparts but we are pleased that in this years competition that number has risen. In other countries the numbers are usually balanced so we also want to be represented by a balanced number of deserving artists, she said.