Bevan de Wet for Visual Art
Bevan de Wet is an artist and printmaker based in Johannesburg. He works primarily on paper, exploring various forms of printmaking such as intaglio, relief, monotype and screen-printing.
De Wet studied fine art at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, under the mentorship of Dominic Thorburn, Christine Dixie and Diane Victor. He majored in printmaking and completed his BFA with distinction. He began his career as a practicing artist in 2009, and has since returned to Rhodes for two semesters as a guest lecturer in the printmaking department.
In 2010 he began working as a collaborative printer at David Krut Print Workshop in Johannesburg. Since 2011 De Wet has worked at Artist Proof Studio as a professional printmaker, print technician and academic facilitator. He has worked with artists such as Gerhard Marx, Walter Oltmann and William Kentridge. De Wet also facilitates regular printmaking workshops at the Sharon Sampson studio in Illovo.
He has exhibited extensively locally and internationally, including a recent solo exhibition at Nirox Projects titled Vestige (2014); TWENTY: Contemporary Art from South Africa, North Carolina (2014); South African Voices: A New Generation of Printmakers, Washington Printmakers Gallery (2014); Multiplied Art Fair, Christies Auction House, London (2013); and Making Connections, Southern Graphics Conference International, Milwaukee (2013).
In 2012 De Wet was awarded a fellowship from the Ampersand Foundation (New York 2013) and also received the Thami Mnyele Art on Paper Merit Award. De Wet is a recent Absa L’Atelier Merit Award Winner with the Sylt Foundation, granting him a two-month residency on the island of Sylt in Germany 2015.
Jade Bowers for Theatre
Capetonian Jade Bowers graduated from the University of Cape Town (UCT) with a bachelor of social sciences degree in drama and sociology. She is currently completing her honours degree at the University of the Witwatersrand with a focus on directing and design for the stage.
Bowers was named one of AfriPOP’s Top Five Female Theatre Makers in South Africa, received a Naledi nomination for Best Sound Design and has recently received a Silver Ovation Award from the National Arts Festival. She has worked as a production manager, stage manager, festival director for WALE 4.0, and as a director and designer. She is currently a theatrical rights administrator at the Dramatic Arts and Literary Rights Organisation and also runs her own production company, Jade Bowers Design & Management. For more information see her website jadeherself.wix.com/jbdesign.
Nomfundo Xaluva for Music
Born and raised in Port Elizabeth, Nomfundo Xaluva was introduced to classical piano at the Victoria Girls Primary Boarding School in Grahamstown when she was 12. In her final year at high school, Xaluva decided to study jazz and enrolled for a BMus in jazz studies at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 2003. In that same year she joined the National Youth Choir, where she made her solo debut in 2009. Nomfundo then completed her master’s in jazz studies (voice and dissertation) from UCT, where she graduated with distinction. For her master’s she did a dissertation on the music of Mama Afrika and titled it The Analysis of the Musical Style of Miriam Makeba.
In 2011 Xaluva recorded her first album, Kusile, produced by Mandisi Dyantyis and with fellow artists pianist Bokani Dyer, double bassist Wesley Rustin, drummer Kevin Gibson and saxophonist and flautist Buddy Wells.
Xaluva has shared a stage with jazz legends such as Sibongile Khumalo. Her career highlights include opening for Dianne Reeves at Monte Casino in 2011, being invited as an artist in residence to the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music and winning the award for Best Urban Jazz Album for Kusile at the 2014 Metro FM Music Awards. Xaluva debuted her album at the Standard Bank Jazz Festival at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in the same year.
She then went on to perform at the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz Festival as part of the Mzansi Golden Voices, who paid tribute to Brenda Fassie with the German Orchestra Kicks and Sticks.
In August 2014, Xaluva headlined her own concert at the Port Elizabeth Opera House as part of the inaugural Nelson Mandela Bay Concert Series. Here, she also taught a vocal master class as part of the mentorship aspect of the initiative. Xaluva is head vocal coach at the Cape Academy of Performing Arts.
Thabo Makhetha-Kwinana for Design
Lesotho-born Thabo Makhetha-Kwinana started her own business in 2009. Makhetha-Kwinana graduated from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University with a national diploma in fashion design. She was named as one of House and Leisure magazine’s 2013 rising stars. The Thabo Makhetha brand has showcased designs locally in various Port Elizabeth fashion shows, and nationally the unique designs showed at the Design Indaba in Cape Town in 2013. Makhetha-Kwinana was selected as a semi-finalist for the SA Fashion Week Renault New Talent Search.
Her label was recently invited to showcase the Spring/Summer 2015 collection in Canada, at the Vancouver Fashion Week. The Nelson Mandela Business Chambers have honoured Makhetha-Kwinana as one of the top 40 achievers of 2014.
The Thabo Makheta brand plans to showcase designs on international and national fashion week runways. The company plans to roll out an online store targeting the international market.