About us
A platform where curatorial and commercial interventions meet, the fair is divided into six specialised sections: gallery HUB, gallery LAB, MAX, ETC, AUX, and ORG sections.
Referred to as gallery HUB, the fair’s central section presents the best in contemporary Africa art from across the continent and the world to reflect the fair’s objective to be a quality rather than quantity focused fair.
Adjacent to gallery HUB, and looking to the future of contemporary African art, is gallery LAB. An incubation to develop emerging galleries and hybrid art spaces, gallery LAB will present and test new ideas and business models aimed at transforming the contemporary African art landscape.
The MAX section houses installations or works that would present a challenge if presented in the conventionally sized gallery booth.
Giving fair goers the opportunity to engage with master print and publishing houses, the ETC section offers an abundance of books, prints, catalogues and zines.
A representation of Johannesburg’s seminal art institutions, the ORG section looks to redefine how the public engages with organisations. Whether museums, universities or private institutions, the section is a hands-on approach to examine bodies that were established for the good of the public.
Spanning talks, screenings, public lectures and audio essays, the AUX section, sponsored by ITOO ArtInsure, brings industry leaders to the public to explore a plethora of topics impacting the contemporary art world. Beyond, but centred around the three-day fair, FNB Art Joburg remains committed to audience and collector development through an educational platform and immersive programming respectively known as ArtJoburg.com, the BMW Young Collectors Co., and Open City.
ArtJoburg.com
ArtJoburg.com is a FNB Art Joburg owned pan African content platform that will be the lead architect in shaping the local and global narrative on contemporary African art. Taking an insider’s approach to storytelling while amplifying the perspective of the many African art communities, the platform offers audiences an insight that was previously reserved for a select few. Through written profiles, critiques and reviews, video features, behind the scenes podcasts as well as vodcasts, ArtJoburg.com serves the art practitioner, student, academic and appreciator alike with cutting edge content and storytelling that is for us and by us.
Together with the three-day fair, Open City fulfills FNB Art Joburg’s quest for economic stimulation, inclusivity, and better access for all. To do this, Open City encourages Johannesburg’s visitors and residents to immerse themselves in Johannesburg’s rich and layered cultural offerings to the point where it becomes a part of their everyday. Activating the city with art, music, performance, food and fashion, every day of the week for 16+ days, Open City then gives independent and emerging cultural practitioners the opportunity to reach a wider audience of culture consumers.
For centuries, patrons of the arts have remained far removed from the artists whose work they endorse. Interested in the artists’ work and practice, but disconnected from the artist’s live experience, the relationship centred around the material. A collaboration between BMW and FNB Art Joburg, the BMW Young Collectors Co. initiative was developed to champion Africa’s art market by cultivating a new patronage, a patronage that would grow the support systems artists have.
Born from the action-based FNB Art Joburg, one of the initiative’s objectives is to forge a culture that makes engaging with the local creative economy second-nature for its members. This is achieved through facilitating organic encounters with key players in the arts throughout the year.
Aimed at CEOs, founders, and entrepreneurs under 40, the initiative exists to develop a new generation of art collectors by affording them access to first-hand social experiences with the country’s leading artists, galleries and art patrons.
Looking to protect and serve the arts as much as they collect, this generation of imminent collectors have the opportunity to participate in the arts with a depth that comes from having first-hand insider knowledge.
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