BY SITHA MALIWA:
A young artist from the quiet Botswana village of Ramotswa has broken through one of contemporary Africa’s most fiercely contested artistic spaces, making history as the first Botswana artist to win the prestigious FNB Art Prize.
Kelebogile Marope has been named the recipient of the 2026 FNB Art Prize, turning years of painstaking work with sculpture, drawing and mixed media into a career-defining breakthrough.
Her victory, announced on 2 August, comes as FNB Art Joburg enters its 19th edition and reinforces the fair’s commitment to discovering and elevating Africa’s most compelling artistic voices.
For Marope, however, the prize represents more than recognition. It is a moment in which Botswana’s contemporary art scene steps into a brighter international spotlight.
The jury described her practice as a “compelling expansion of contemporary African sculpture”, praising the precision of her craftsmanship and her ability to push the boundaries of a traditionally male-dominated medium.
What makes her work particularly powerful is its intimacy.
Marope does not need grand monuments or spectacular landscapes to tell stories. She looks closer to home – at domestic spaces, ordinary objects, familiar surfaces and architectural details – and transforms them into vessels of memory.
Her work explores the fragile relationship between memory, identity, home and belonging, asking viewers to reconsider the seemingly ordinary spaces that quietly shape their lives.
Behind that extraordinary achievement is a journey rooted in Botswana but increasingly connected to the wider African art world.
Born in Ramotswa, Marope completed a Bachelor of Fine Art and later a Master of Fine Art at Rhodes University. She has exhibited in both Botswana and South Africa while steadily developing a multidisciplinary practice that has now earned one of the continent’s most significant contemporary art accolades.
And with the prize comes another major opportunity.
As the 2026 winner, Marope will receive a cash prize and stage a solo exhibition at Johannesburg Art Gallery in 2027, home to the continent’s largest art collection.
It is a platform capable of transforming careers.
The FNB Art Prize has previously recognised artists including Thato Toeba, Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude, Lindokuhle Sobekwa, Dada Khanyisa, Lady Skollie, Bronwyn Katz, Peju Alatise, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Turiya Magadlela, Portia Zvavahera, Nelisiwe Xaba, Kudzanai Chiurai and Cedric Nunn, among others.
Marope now joins that distinguished lineage – but with one historic distinction of her own.
She is the first artist from Botswana to claim the prize.
For FNB Chief Marketing Officer Linda Kachingwe-Sisya, Marope’s victory speaks to something bigger than one artist.
“Her work is both deeply personal and universally resonant,” Kachingwe-Sisya said, highlighting its ability to connect people to place, memory and one another.
She said Marope’s achievement reflects the growing strength, diversity and global relevance of contemporary African creativity.
For almost two decades, FNB’s partnership with Art Joburg has sought to create pathways for African artists to move beyond being merely discovered and towards becoming recognised cultural contributors.
Marope’s triumph is perhaps the clearest reminder yet of why such platforms matter.
Across Africa, artists continue to create against difficult economic realities, limited infrastructure and unequal access to international platforms. Yet their work continues to challenge conventions, preserve histories and imagine futures.
Marope’s success demonstrates what can happen when that talent is given the space to be seen.
Her sculptures may begin with the familiar – a home, an object, a surface, a memory – but they have now carried her story far beyond Ramotswa. From Botswana to Johannesburg, and potentially onto the global stage, Kelebogile Marope’s journey has entered a new chapter. The quiet artist from Ramotswa has made her mark. And Africa is watching. – @NewsSA_Online
Follow us on our social media platforms below: