Zondi Wins R100,000 Sasol New Signatures Prize for The Laundry of a Nation
Zondi Wins R100,000 Sasol New Signatures Prize for The Laundry of a Nation. Johannesburg-based artist Sphumelele Zondi has been named the overall winner of the 2026 Sasol New Signatures Visual Arts Competition for her work, The laundry of a nation. The 26-year-old artist receives R100,000 and the opportunity to present a solo exhibition at the Pretoria Art Museum in 2027.
Born in KwaZulu-Natal and now based in Johannesburg, Zondi works primarily across sculpture and mixed media. Her practice explores memory, inherited narratives and the relationship between the past and present, drawing on personal and collective histories and the emotional traces left in everyday materials.
In The laundry of a nation, Zondi examines the social and emotional inheritance carried by young people in contemporary South Africa. The work draws on clothing, labour, domesticity and repetition while considering how national histories remain present in ordinary bodies and materials.
The competition marked Zondi’s first entry into Sasol New Signatures. She said she entered because of the opportunities and exposure the competition provides emerging artists.
A total of 938 works were submitted at eight collection points across South Africa, with 123 selected for the final round of judging and the 2026 exhibition at the Pretoria Art Museum.
Sive Ntombana, a 23-year-old painter and mural artist based in Makhanda, was named runner-up for Umlandeli and receives R25,000. Five artists, Charlie de Bruto, Inga Lokwe, Wisani Manyisi, Thomas Masingi and Charné Mungur, each received Merit Awards of R10,000.
Sasol New Signatures chairperson Pfunzo Sidogi said Zondi’s winning work reflected the concerns explored by artists in this year’s final exhibition.
The competition was founded more than 60 years ago by the Association of Arts Pretoria, while Sasol has sponsored it for the past 36 years.
The 2026 Sasol New Signatures exhibition runs at the Pretoria Art Museum from 10 September to 8 November and includes works by the winners and finalists, alongside the solo exhibition of 2025 winner Juandré van Eck.
