As Africa’s leading and longest-running contemporary art fair, FNB Art Joburg is proud to announce the winner of the 2025 FNB Art Prize: Thato Toeba. Now in its 18th year, FNB Art Joburg’s mandate is to sustainably support and grow the continent’s cultural offering in ways that go beyond the fair. One of the ways this is achieved is through the annual FNB Art Prize.

The Jury’s Decision

The 2025 jury comprised Kim Kandan (fair manager, FNB Art Joburg representative), Kenneth Montague (collector, doctor and director of the WEDGE Collection, one of Canada’s largest privately owned contemporary art collections), and Janine Gaëlle Dieudji (curator of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art).

On their decision, the jury said: “Thato Toeba’s practice holds a quiet force. Their use of collage and assemblage is both deliberate and layered, allowing for a visual language that is conceptually clear and materially rich. There is a distinct sense of control in how they handle composition, texture and text, revealing a commitment to process as much as to meaning. What set Toeba apart was the clarity of vision, the formal maturity of the work and the considered pace of their trajectory. In a field of strong nominees, theirs emerged as the most resolved and coherent.”

Building on Legacy

As the recipient of the 15th FNB Art Prize, Toeba joins previous winners Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude, Lindokuhle Sobekwa, Dada Khanyisa, Wycliffe Mundopa, Lady Skollie, Bronwyn Katz, Haroon Gunn-Salie, Peju Alatise, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Turiya Magadlela, Portia Zvavahera, Nelisiwe Xaba, Mocke J van Veuren, Kudzanai Chiurai, and Cedric Nunn.

FNB’s Commitment to the Arts

Faye Mfikwe, FNB Chief Marketing Officer, says: “We congratulate Thato Toeba on winning the coveted 2025 FNB Art Prize. Since inception in 2008, FNB’s involvement as a sponsor of FNB Art Joburg has demonstrated our commitment to being a trusted partner that empowers artists to be change agents through their artwork and the communities within which they live.

We believe that art leads change by playing a crucial role in cultural expression, innovation, borderless connection, shared prosperity, and economic growth. And, in alignment with our Grassroots to Greatness sponsorship strategy, awarding the FNB Art Prize remains a way for us to showcase our commitment to supporting and growing the creative economy across the continent.”

About Thato Toeba the Artist

Born in 1990 in Maseru, Thato is an artist, lawyer, and social sciences researcher working with mixed-media photomontage and assemblage. In 2015, they received an LLM from Humboldt University, Berlin, and are in the process of concluding a two-year residency at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. As part of Stevenson’s STAGE initiative, aimed at platforming younger unrepresented artists, Toeba had their first solo exhibition in 2023 titled Phate lia Lekana at Stevenson in Johannesburg.

Their exhibition history includes:

• Today I Wish to Talk to Your Dreams, Mount Nelson, Cape Town (2023)
• Where Do I Begin, Stevenson, Cape Town (2022)
• Propelling Otherness, Morija Museum, Maseru (2021)

Why Toeba’s Work Matters

Mandla Sibeko, Managing Director of FNB Art Joburg, notes: “What makes Thato Toeba’s practice stand out today is how intentional it is. In a time when quick visuals and surface-level messages are everywhere, their work takes another route. It is careful, considered, and honest about complexity. That is what makes it not just important, but necessary, especially now when there is so much at stake in how stories are told and who gets to tell them.”

A Practice of Many Layers

Thato’s work reminds us that art can help us see the world and ourselves differently. Using collage and assemblage, they bring together photos, textures, and materials to tell layered stories about identity, power, and history. Their images resist single narratives, instead holding multiple meanings at once, asking viewers to slow down, look closer, and think deeply. The practice interrogates how black life is represented and misrepresented, balancing moments of struggle with gestures of care.

As the winner of the 2025 FNB Art Prize, Thato Toeba will receive a cash award and a solo exhibition at the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 2026, home to the largest art collection on the continent.