Botswana’s contemporary art scene has a new milestone to celebrate. Kelebogile Marope has been named the 2026 FNB Art Prize winner, becoming the first artist from Botswana to receive the prestigious award.
The recognition places Marope’s work firmly within a wider African contemporary art conversation — one that is increasingly looking beyond established creative centres and towards artists building new visual languages from their own histories, environments and experiences.
For young South Africans and creatives watching the continent’s cultural landscape evolve, her win is also a reminder that compelling African stories don’t have to come from the usual places.
Turning the Everyday Into Art
Born in Ramotswa, Botswana, Marope works across sculpture, drawing and mixed media, exploring the complicated relationship between memory, identity and the spaces people call home.
Her practice looks closely at domestic environments and everyday materials, finding meaning in objects, surfaces and architectural details that might otherwise disappear into the background of daily life.
That approach makes the familiar feel different.
Rather than treating home simply as a physical structure, Marope investigates how our surroundings accumulate memories and become connected to belonging, routine and identity. Her work asks audiences to reconsider the emotional weight carried by the ordinary things around them.
The FNB Art Prize jury highlighted her ability to expand contemporary African sculpture while developing a distinctive material language rooted in place.
Claiming Space in Sculpture
The award also carries another important dimension.
Marope has developed her sculptural practice within a traditionally male-dominated medium, carving out a space for herself through a highly process-driven approach and attention to material and craft.
After completing a Bachelor of Fine Art and Master of Fine Art at Rhodes University, she has exhibited in both Botswana and South Africa, gradually establishing a multidisciplinary practice with regional relevance.
Now, her recognition gives Botswana’s contemporary art scene a significant moment on one of Africa’s major art platforms.
From Botswana to Johannesburg
As part of the prize, Marope will receive a cash award and a solo exhibition at Johannesburg Art Gallery in 2027, home to one of the continent’s largest art collections.
That future exhibition could become an important opportunity for Johannesburg audiences to experience her work beyond the context of a single art fair.
It also reflects the broader purpose behind the FNB Art Prize, which FNB Art Joburg positions as a long-term investment in developing a more sustainable and self-reliant contemporary African art ecosystem.
Now in its 19th edition, FNB Art Joburg continues to use the prize to spotlight artists whose practices can broaden how African creativity is understood locally and internationally.
For Marope, however, the significance goes beyond adding another award to her career.
Her win brings Botswana further into the contemporary African art conversation — and demonstrates how memory, place and everyday life can become powerful material for imagining what African art can be.
