📸: Supplied

The 2026 Standard Bank Young Artist Awards recognise five creators expanding regional cultural languages. Bronwyn Katz, Gabi Motuba, Jason Jacobs, Lee-ché Janecke, and Ndumiso Manana move fluidly across disciplines, histories, and platforms. Together, they reflect how contemporary artistic practice merges deep archives with modern cinematic and global sonic environments today.

How The 2026 Standard Bank Young Artists Are Reshaping Creative Expression Today

02 April 2026

In 2026, artistic production is operating within a shifting cultural framework. The historical lines separating creative disciplines are loosening, and the distance between experimental practice and popular culture is steadily narrowing. Today’s creators are engineering new pathways between the archive, the physical stage, and the global digital screen.

View this post on Instagram

Responding to this cultural moment, the National Arts Festival (NAF)—custodians of the Standard Bank Young Artist Awards (SBYA)—alongside their long-standing partner Standard Bank, have announced a 2026 cohort whose work reflects the expanding languages of South African art.

The Standard Bank Young Artist Awards operate as an acknowledgement of creative excellence and an accelerator for cultural production. The 2026 awardees represent a group of practitioners firmly grounded in their mediums, yet whose work moves fluidly between forms, histories, and audiences.

View this post on Instagram

The 2026 Standard Bank Young Artist Award recipients are:

Bronwyn Katz – Visual Arts: Working through sculpture and installation, Katz develops a speculative language grounded in land, memory, and embodied knowledge. Her practice examines how histories that exist outside traditional archives can be transmitted through material, gesture, and sound.

Gabi Motuba – Jazz: A vocalist, composer, and educator, Motuba’s work navigates between avant-garde experimentation and philosophical inquiry. She positions sound as an intellectual and spiritual discipline, bringing music into direct dialogue with literature, history, and political thought.

Jason Jacobs – Theatre: Drawing from Nama-Khoi indigenous heritage, Jacobs explores identity and community across theatre and film. His work translates lived histories into contemporary narrative forms, aiding the articulation of First Nations stories within the broader cultural landscape.

Lee-ché Janecke (Litchi HOV) – Dance: Emerging from popular choreography and global performance culture, Janecke’s practice circumvents conventional contemporary dance institutions. His widespread collaborations across the music industry demonstrate how choreography currently travels across digital culture, stadium stages, and international audiences.

Ndumiso Manana – Music: A singer, songwriter, and producer, Manana’s compositions track across R&B, electronic, Afrobeats, and acoustic traditions. By pairing introspective lyricism with expansive sonic experimentation, his work reflects a generation actively navigating both local and global sound worlds.

Each recipient will develop new work to premiere at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda between 25 June and 5 July 2026, serving as both presentation and a platform for targeted artistic development. The full NAF programme will be revealed on 12 May 2026.

Speaking on the institutional impact of the cohort, Bonga Sebesho, Group Head of Sponsorship at Standard Bank, noted: “Through the Standard Bank Young Artist Awards we continue to support artists who are shaping the cultural landscape in real time. The 2026 recipients reflect the depth and diversity of creative practice in South Africa today, from artists working with memory and language to those transforming global popular culture. As Standard Bank, our commitment to the arts is grounded in the belief that artists help us interpret the present while imagining the future.”

This acceleration is echoed by NAF CEO, Monica Newton: “This year’s recipients arrive with something to say and the award gives them the platform and momentum to say it louder. What excites me most is watching how this moment becomes a turning point: suddenly there are bigger stages, bolder projects, wider audiences and of course, artists with the clarity and skill to make the best of it. South Africa has no shortage of brilliant young artists. What we need is more pathways that actually accelerate their careers—and that’s exactly what this partnership delivers.”

For over four decades, the awards have identified more than 180 creatives who have reshaped their fields. The 2026 cohort continues this trajectory, decoding and expanding the systems of South African cultural exchange.

Follow standardbankarts for more updates.