Local talent shines: Rust-en-Vrede Portrait Awards exhibition at KZNSA Gallery
Senzelw’umusa Mathe with her portrait of her parents is created entirely in tapestry crochet.
Image: Supplied
The work of two KwaZulu-Natal artists, who are among the top 40 finalists in the Rust-en-Vrede Portrait Awards, will be on display along with other finalists and the winner's work at the KZNSA Gallery in Durban next month.
The exhibition, which celebrates excellence in contemporary portraiture, is on a national tour and will be on show at the gallery (166 Bulwer Road) from February 11 until March 1.
The Top 40 finalists and the overall winner were announced in August 2025.
Among this year’s Top 40 are two KZN artists: Senzelw’umusa Mathe and Gary McIver.
Mathe, a 22-year-old artist now based in Johannesburg, creates intricate portraits entirely in tapestry crochet - a rare medium for a Top 40 artist. Her piece, Bazali Bami (“My Parents”), is based on a photograph of her parents and celebrates the care and effort they invested in raising her.
The touring exhibition offers Mathe and her family in KwaZulu-Natal the special opportunity to see her work on display in person.
Gary McIver with his portrait, left, titled At the Louvre, He is seen here with another finalist Marinda Combrinck and her work.
Image: Supplied
McIver, a high school art teacher, created At the Louvre, an oil-on-canvas portrait that blends classical technique with a contemporary classroom narrative. The work shows one of his students seated in afternoon light, quietly absorbed in drawing - a moment that, for McIver, reflects the attentiveness, curiosity and discipline he encounters in his learners every day.
The title began as a playful pun shared with his students about the louvre windows in the school where the scene unfolds, and it also gestures toward the theme of aspiration: the open window suggests both illumination and the metaphorical breath or spirit that animates artistic beginnings.
The portrait was inspired by his students’ discussion and lighthearted re-enactment of Marie-Denise Villers’s neoclassical painting Young Woman Drawing (1801), which depicts a student sketching inside the Louvre.
Founded in 2013, the Rust-en-Vrede Portrait Awards is a biennial competition celebrating South Africa’s portrait artists.
Malik Mani with his artwork during the 2025 Portrait Award opening gala.
Image: Supplied
This year’s winner, Malik Mani, was announced at a gala evening at the Rust-en-Vrede Gallery in August for his hyper-realistic drawing Mask, earning R150 000 and a solo exhibition at Rust-en-Vrede in 2027.
“It’s a rare opportunity for an exhibition of this scale to travel across the country,” says Donavan Mynhardt, Curator at Rust-en-Vrede Gallery.
“The tour’s goal is simple but significant: to celebrate South Africa’s artistic talent and give audiences in different provinces the chance to experience these portraits in person. Together, the Portrait Awards and the Top 40 Tour highlight the value of showcasing homegrown creativity while reaffirming portraiture’s enduring power to tell stories.
“You don’t have to be an art connoisseur to engage with it. I’m excited that the Top 40 Tour will allow audiences across the country to experience these works first-hand and share in that connection,” said Mynhardt.
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