Sphumelele Zondi has been named the overall winner of the 2026 Sasol New Signatures Visual Arts Competition for The laundry of a nation.
Sphumelele Zondi winner of Sasol New Signatures Visual Arts Competition 2026. (Image supplied)
The 26-year-old artist receives R100,000 and the opportunity to present a solo exhibition at the Pretoria Art Museum in 2027.
Turning clothing into an archive
Born in KwaZulu-Natal and now based in Johannesburg, Zondi works primarily across sculpture and mixed media. Her practice explores memory, inherited narratives and the relationship between the past and present, often drawing on personal and collective histories and the emotional traces left in everyday materials.
In The laundry of a nation, Zondi examines the social and emotional inheritance carried by young people in contemporary South Africa.
Drawing on clothing, labour, domesticity and repetition, the work considers how national histories can remain present in ordinary bodies and materials.
Clothing, in this context, becomes more than something worn. Garments can carry associations with labour, survival, class, memory, religion and economic circumstances as they move between families, communities, schools, churches and workplaces.
Her first time entering
For Zondi, the 2026 competition marked her first entry into Sasol New Signatures.
“This was my first time entering the competition. What prompted me to enter Sasol New Signatures was the incredible opportunities and exposure it provides to young emerging artists. I first became aware of the competition during my university years, and this year I felt ready to take that step and put my work forward.”
She said the competition offered an important platform for her work to be encountered by a wider audience.
“The competition holds such great significance in the South African art space and an important platform where my work could be seen and engaged with.”
938 works submitted
A total of 938 works were submitted at eight collection points across South Africa for this year’s competition. From these, 123 works were selected for the final round of judging and inclusion in the 2026 exhibition at the Pretoria Art Museum.
Sasol has sponsored the competition for 36 years, supporting emerging South African artists through opportunities for exposure and professional development.
Nozipho Mlambo, Sasol senior manager of group brand and sponsorships, said the competition provides a platform for artists to present different perspectives and develop their careers.
“Sasol New Signatures has provided a vital platform for emerging artists to share their perspectives, challenge convention and take the next step in their creative journeys.”
Sive Ntombana named runner-up
The 2026 runner-up is 23-year-old painter and mural artist Sive Ntombana, who is based in Makhanda and is currently completing a Master of Fine Arts at Rhodes University. Ntombana receives R25,000 for Umlandeli.
Sive Ntombana (Image supplied)
The work forms part of a practice-based research project examining trauma in the Xhosa rural Eastern Cape and how it is interpreted, experienced and engaged with.
“I work with ingcawe (a traditional Xhosa white blanket featuring a distinct dark or black stripe) and collected ochres to reference the rural,” said Ntombana.
“Through collecting and working with ochres, I invoke ukusula, a mural painting practice in the Mpondo rural area, to think about healing in practice and as a practice.”
Five artists receive Merit Awards
The five Merit Award winners each receive R10,000:
- Charlie de Bruto (21) – Pretoria
Ball buster, 2026 - Inga Lokwe (28) – Pretoria
Qula kwedini, 2025 - Wisani Manyisi (41) – Johannesburg
Dance of memory, 2026 - Thomas Masingi (35) – Polokwane
The desire to become one series, 2025 - Charné Mungur (49) – Gqeberha
Echoes of silence, 2025
‘Big and difficult questions’
Sasol New Signatures chairperson Pfunzo Sidogi said Zondi’s winning work reflects the wider concerns explored across this year’s exhibition.
“The laundry of a nation (2026) is an exemplar of how the emerging artists represented in this year’s final exhibition are advancing the tradition of art that tackles the big and difficult questions of life in profound creative registers.”
Sidogi also highlighted the range of work included in the final exhibition, which features 123 artworks, as well as the debut solo exhibition of the 2025 overall winner, Juandré van Eck.
A long-running platform for emerging artists
The competition was founded more than 60 years ago by the Association of Arts Pretoria, with Sasol having sponsored it for the past 36 years.
The organisers also acknowledged the continued support of the Association of Arts Pretoria, the City of Tshwane, the Pretoria Art Museum and Stuttaford Van Lines.
Pieter van Heerden, director of the Association of Arts Pretoria, described the competition as a platform for new perspectives and approaches to art.
“The Sasol New Signatures Visual Arts Competition is so important and necessary. It provides a platform for new voices, new perspectives and new ways of seeing the world.”
See the 2026 exhibition
The Sasol New Signatures exhibition, featuring work by the 2026 winners and finalists, runs at the Pretoria Art Museum from 10 September to 8 November 2026.
The exhibition also includes the solo exhibition of 2025 winner Juandré van Eck, Die Vallei van Adem.
All finalists’ works are included in the competition catalogue, which is available online, while the exhibition can also be viewed virtually via the website.
