The inaugural Cape Town Art Fair wants to change the narrative on printmaking and make it popular again as an art form.
Creators, collectors and print enthusiasts will gather in Cape Town in March to showcase South Africa’s talented artists and unique print culture.
Enthusiasts can expect to engage with curated works in lithography, etching and a plethora of other printmaking techniques. Executive director of the Cape Town Print Fair Breeze Yoko Artist told Sunday World that the event will be a dedicated celebration of printed matter, an art form that has always been prevalent in the culture of storytelling in South Africa.
“We have this incredible, world-class art scene here, but we realised there wasn’t a dedicated moment to celebrate a medium that’s so deeply woven into our country’s fabric: printmaking. South Africa has this wonderful, untapped history of using prints to tell stories, to resist, and to empower. It felt like a sleeping giant, commercially,” Yoko explained.
As much as the showcase is a platform for creative talents, it is also about connecting artists with buyers and building their own networks. “So many fairs are gallery-dominated, which can leave the artists themselves in the background. We’ve flipped that model. By reserving the fair for independent artists, studios and publishers, we make sure the artists are the stars of the show.”.
One of the biggest challenges to printmaking is that it is often seen as the “poor cousin” to painting, a footnote in the local art history books. Yoko acknowledged its rich and vital history, from the protest art of the 1980s to the legendary workshops at Rorke’s Drift. She noted that those stories and skills could fade from public view if they are not showcased.
“So, this fair is our way of putting printmaking centre stage. We want to bridge the gap between the studios and archives and the wider public, to reignite that connection. And on a practical level, we want to build a proper marketplace for it so that this powerful art form can sustain the artists who dedicate their lives to it.”
The event will not only be business, displays and networking. The audience will also get a chance to participate in live demos, workshops and talks to enhance their experience. “We don’t want people to just walk around quietly looking at things on walls. We want them to get their hands dirty. There’s nothing quite like the pride of creating your own little print to take home. The talks are just as important to us; they’re a chance to sit down and understand why a particular image mattered during the struggle or how a certain technique was developed.”
Yoko said the organisers were intentional in ensuring the representation of diverse voices, which includes emerging artists. The committee tasked with selecting printmakers has had to cast its net wide to include community art centres and universities, as well as artists in townships and rural areas who might not have the gallery exposure.
“For us, true representation is an active invitation. It’s about making sure the fair reflects the rich, complex, and beautiful reality of our whole society, not just a small part of it.”
This legacy project also seeks to plant a seed that will grow into something lasting.
“We want to look back and see that printmaking was finally given its proper place in the sun – considered a vital, collectible art form. If this first fair helps an artist create a new body of work because they’ve found buyers, or if it sparks a lifelong love of collecting in someone who walked through our doors for the first time, then we’ll have done what we set out to do. It’s about building a future for print, one page at a time.”
The Cape Town Print Fair takes place from March 27 to 29.
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