Meet the Standard Bank Young Artists for 2021

The rest are dancer and choregrapher Kristi-Leigh Gresse, performance artist Gavin Krastin, visual artist Buhlebezwe Siwani and theatre performer Thando Doni.

Each young artist will receive a cash incentive, and will be commissioned to premiere a new work or exhibit to be featured at the NAF next year.

Levin’s compositions fuse South African musical traditions with jazz, pop and electronics. The guitarist has produced four studio albums, the latest being a 2020 concept album titled Antique Spoons: Chapters on Love, Loss and the Politics of Memory, which is accompanied by three short films.

Stacey is committed to contextualising and preserving indigenous southern African music. She was trained in piano and traditional musical bows the umrhubhe, uhadi and makhweyane. She also studied the mbira and budongo.

More than 160 artists have been recognised as Standard Bank Young Artists since 1981. Many of the the alumni of the programme have shaped South Africa’s arts landscape while boosting the creative economy.

Last year, Standard Bank and the NAF were given the Long-Term Partnership Award by Business and Arts South Africa for their contribution to the industry.

“After all these years, the Standard Bank Young Artist Award is still an award that artists aspire to and one that the public recognises as a major endorsement,” NAF CEO Monica Newton said. “The recipients often go on to become household names overnight. We would like to extend gratitude to our partner, Standard Bank, not just for this project but for their continued commitment to supporting South African talent.

“Young artists in South Africa need the inspiration these individuals embody. Standard Bank Young Artists represent the reward for years of hard work and determination and remind us that we have great talent in our midst. I would like to recognise the exceptional achievements of the 2021 Standard Bank Young Artists, and we look forward to seeing them perform and exhibit at the National Arts Festival in 2022 and to seeing how they use this accolade to further their artistic dreams and ambitions.”

Previous recipients of the award include musicians like Johnny Clegg (1989) and Sibongile Khumalo (1993), and more recently Spoek Mathambo (2020), Sisonke Xonti (2020), Kyle Shepherd (2014), Nduduzo Makhathini (2015), Thandi Ntuli (2018) and Mandla Mlangeni (2019).