SPIER CONTEMPORARY 2010 WINNERS

KZN artists Mlu Zondi and Sicelo Ziqubu among winners of the Spier Contemporary 2010 Competition.

The Spier Contemporary 2010, South Africa's largest art competition and exhibition, announced its winners in March and two KZN artists - Mlu Zondi and Sicelo Ziqubu - walked away with prestigious artist-in-residency awards at institutions in the United States and Brazil.

Mlu Zondi has won an eight-week placement at the 18th Street Art Centre in California, which he will take up in December 2010. A multi-award winning artist, he graduated from Durban University of Technology with a Diploma in Drama and Performance Studies and has since garnered international recognition with his work that blends dance, visual art and video installation. He has collected a string of coveted awards including MTN New Contemporaries Award 2006/7 and Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Dance 2010. He is currently working on a new work, Cinema, that will premier at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in June. His video installation, Despotica, was screened at the ScreenMoves in Copenhagen, Denmark in March.

Sicelo Ziqubu, an artist from Newcastle, has won a placement at the Instituto Sacatar on the Island of Itaparica in Bahia, Brazil. He studied at the Durban University of Technology, specialising in drawing, painting, history of art, graphic and textile design and participated in art workshops at the Carnegie Art Gallery in Newcastle. He has exhibited at renowned galleries such as Zwollwn Stadshof in the Netherlands and the Absa L'Atelier in Johannesburg. He was also a finalist in the Spier Contemporary 2007.

Mlu Zondi will be performing his winning piece, Inferno, at various intervals throughout the exhibition while Sicelo Ziqubu's works Sit and Look at the Mirror of Co-existence; In Diversity: A Lesson from the Bees and Please take a seat and look at the co-operation mirrored at the ants' wonderful activities will be on display throughout the exhibition.

The Spier Contemporary 2010 runs from March 14 to May 14 at Cape Town's City Hall in Darling Street and is open from 10h00 to 18h00 every day. Entrance is free. For more information on the Spier Contemporary visit http://www.spiercontemporary.co.za