Mokhuhlani is the new TAYA champion
Chippa Legodimo | Monday December 8, 2014 12:00
His craft piece titled Matshwaro put a smile on the creator’s face when it scooped the P35,000 winning prize on Thursday night.
Ogopoleng Kgomoethata, the runner up, pocketed P17,500 for his efforts.
Kefilwe Sentsho was crowned The Young Artist of the Year for her scrambled metal mixed media craft piece. She took home the P10,000 prize money.
This year the awards categories were increased from four to 10. Apart from the ultimate TAYA and Young Artist of the Year awards, there were also the Painting, Public Art, Craft, Sculpture, Installation, Graphics, Drawing and Photography categories.
The 2013 Young artist of the Year Gosego Motlogelwa won in the Sculpture category this time around while Kedumetse Tshidiso scooped the Best Painting award.
Dudu Brooks’s Seboana piece won her the Craft award with Kago Monageng scooping the Graphics award and Akanayang Chingani winning in the Installation category.
Phenyo Moalosi was crowned the Best Photographer while Moemedi Sebonego walked away with the Best Drawing award.
The 20-III Group won the Public Art category for their installation piece at the old Gaborone footbridge.
The awards ceremony attracted the biggest crowd since the inception of the awards in 2004 and according to Thapong coordinator, Reginald Bakwena, there had been an increase in the number of entries too. The number of artists who entered for the 2014 edition increased to 95 from 91 last year.
Bakwena also noted that the numbers of female artists were steadily going up, something, which he said, should be appreciated, as there was need for gender balance in the visual arts industry.
“We had 19 female entries and this is an improvement because in the past we would have about only 10,” he said.