11/07/2025
COLLECTING INSIGHT: Photography in Focus
A Rising Market and a Moment to Collect
In recent years, photography has emerged as one of the most dynamic and accessible categories in the global art market. This is especially true in Africa, where it has become the medium of choice for artists exploring themes of identity, history, and place. This growing momentum is highlighted by the upcoming IN PICTURE auction, which offers collectors a rare chance to acquire significant works while supporting the inaugural Cape Town Photography Festival.
08/07/2025
RESULTS: Art and Wine Auctions, June 2025
Impressive Performance Paints a Strong Picture
Aspire Art returned to Johannesburg to launch its Winter Auction Season with the Modern & Contemporary Art Live Auction, which took place on 25 June. The sale delivered a strong performance, achieving exceptional results that signal resurgent momentum and growing confidence in the art market.
19/06/2025
Works on Paper as Witness
Aspire Art is pleased to present an exceptional group of works on paper by some of South Africa’s most important Black modernists on the upcoming Modern & Contemporary Art live auction on the 25th of June 2025.
19/06/2025
Walkabout:
You’re invited to a special walkabout on Saturday 21 June at 11am with our art specialists Sarah Sinisi and Carina Jansen as they share unique insights and personal stories behind the works in, With Love, Robert Hodgins: Artworks from the Studio
24/04/2025
Revisiting the Figure
How Different Artists Play with Familiar Forms
Aspire Art’s AUTUMN ’25 Collection: Beyond Boundaries offers a dynamic selection of figurative works that challenge, reimagine, and expand the tradition of representing the human form.
17/04/2025
The Art of Ardmore:
A Collection of Ceramics Bursting with Colour, Character & Craft
Aspire Art's AUTUMN' 25: Beyond Boundaries online sale features a joyful collection of Ardmore pieces, celebrating the studio’s signature blend of vibrant storytelling, collaborative craft, and whimsical design.
03/03/2025
Warhol’s Einstein
A Pop Art Masterpiece Debut in South Africa
Aspire Art is extremely excited to present Andy Warhol’s iconic portrait of Albert Einstein in our upcoming Modern & Contemporary Art Live Auction in Cape Town on 12 March 2025.
02/12/2024
A World Between Pages
Why Every Art Lover Should Invest in These Art Books
Aspire Art is proud to present a collection of quintessential art books at irresistible prices, curated by an esteemed art book collector. Whether you're an art lover, a collector, or simply someone who values unique cultural expressions, these books offer the perfect opportunity to curate and grow your own personal library or source the perfect gift for the upcoming festive season.
29/11/2024
All Roads Lead to Johannesburg:
Forming part of Aspire Art's 20th/21st Century Classics Online Auction, is a special collection of works that offer poignant snippets into the historical and physical landscapes that have shaped Egoli – the city of gold.
18/11/2024
Layers of Life
The Textures of Helen Mmakgabo Mmapula Sebidi’s Art
A highlight in Aspire Art's 20th Century & Contemporary Art auction on 20 November, Helen Sebidi’s The Boys Return Home from Initiation encapsulates the dynamic interplay of spirituality, identity, and human experience. Rendered with Sebidi’s signature textured application of vibrant reds, blues, ochres, and purples, the painting radiates an energy that feels alive, echoing the rhythms of African mythology and folklore.
15/11/2024
Timeless Elegance
The Iconic Charm and Enduring Allure of the Hermès Kelly Bag
Leading Aspire Art's To Have & To Hold: Iconic Handbags Online Auction are two exquisite Hermès Kelly bags, crafted with masterful precision and unmatched luxury. Featuring Togo leather and iconic gold hardware, these treasures capture the essence of sophistication and timeless style.
13/11/2024
George Pemba:
The Passionate Observer and Visual Chronicler
One of the highlights on Aspire Art's 20th Century & Contemporary Art auction in Cape Town on 20 November, is a captivating portrait of a young Xhosa woman, painted in 1948 by the celebrated artist George Pemba.
04/11/2024
The Supercar That Defined a Generation:
The cover lot for Aspire Art's upcoming Collectable Cars Auction is the 1997 Lamborghini Diablo SV, famously known as a Hallmark of Lamborghini’s Engineering Prowess and one of the fastest supercars of the 1990s.
04/11/2024
The Most Beautiful Car Ever Made
1963 Jaguar E-Type 3.8 Series 1 Roadster
Aspire Art are thrilled to unveil the 1963 Jaguar E-Type 3.8 Series 1 Roadster, one of the most desirable and sought-after cars to feature in their inaugural Collectable Car Live Auction in Johannesburg on 9 November.
04/11/2024
Innovation Meets Iconic Design:
Ferrari's Revolutionary 1976 308 GTB Vetroresina
With great excitement, Aspire Art are proud to present one of the only five remaining 1976 Ferrari 308 GTB Vetroresinas in South Africa. A highlight lot for the inaugural Collectable Car Live Auction in Johannesburg on 9 November, this extraordinary car offers collectors a rare opportunity to own a truly iconic piece of Ferrari history.
01/10/2024
Portraits in Profile
The Evocative Simplicity of Mark Hipper’s Sketches
Aspire Art's current Contemporary Art auction features a striking collection of Mark Hipper's evocative portraits. Known for his minimalist pencil sketches, Hipper captures raw emotion and vulnerability, challenging traditional portraiture with his delicate yet powerful works.
27/09/2024
Contemporary Textile Art
Aspire Art's current Contemporary Art auction features three bold artists who push the boundaries of textile art.
27/09/2024
From Canvas to Screen
The Technical Craft of Jake Aikman’s Prints
Aspire Art’s Contemporary Art auction features Jake Aikman’s striking screen prints, where layered textures and masterful use of light and shadow bring his seascapes to life.
27/09/2024
Unravelling Narratives
Aspire Art’s Contemporary Art online auction features Michaela Younge’s captivating felt tapestries, where playful aesthetics meet unsettling, surreal narratives.
09/09/2024
Ernest Pignon-Ernest: Street Art and Struggle
Tracing the pioneer of street art's ties with South Africa
The Soweto-Warwick project is a wonderful example of Ernest Pignon-Ernest's interventions, which blend the boundaries between art and the urban landscape, creating visual statements which are catalysts for thought and change. Read more about the French artist's ties with South Africa and how the artwork coming up on Aspire Art's 20th Century and Contemporary Art Auction on the 11th September represents a holistic embodiment of Pignon-Ernest's art-making process.
05/09/2024
Irma Stern's Golden Era
Travelling the 'Land of Strong Colours'
Few artists could boast of travels as extensive and vibrant as that of Irma Stern. Her restless spirit drove her to explore the farthest corners of Europe, but it was the vast landscapes and diverse cultures of Africa that truly ignited her passion. Africa, with its vibrant and diverse cultures, provided Irma Stern with the inspiration that would shape her legacy.
08/08/2024
Celebrating the Feminine Vision in Art
As we celebrate Women’s Month, Aspire Art's current Paintings Online Auction fittingly features a powerful lineup of notable women artists. While Women’s Day often conjures images of boldness and assertiveness, many women painters like Cape-based Clare Menck offer a refreshing perspective.
07/08/2024
COLLECTING INSIGHT
Don’t Blink: 5 Young Contemporary Painters You Don’t Want to Miss
Aspire Art’s current Painting Online Auction, celebrates a wide selection of modern masters – including Gregoire Boonzaier, Nel Erasmus, Christo Coetzee and Trevor Coleman – all working in the rich and enticing medium of painting. Complementing and contrasting these masters, young artists are developing techniques and taking lessons from those who came before them to present contemporary audiences with new and bold paintings relating to their current conditions and unique mindsets.
05/08/2024
How to Take Care of Your Paintings
Over time, both the canvas/board and the paint itself will be effected by the environment and the duration of time. Although it might seem daunting at first, a few small changes and attention to your beloved artworks will stretch both their quality and value over the years.
Whether the work is being safely stored or hung on your wall, there are four basic things need to be taken into consideration: Light, Temperature, Humidity, and Dust.
12/07/2024
Creative Bonds
South African Artists and the International Avant-Garde
Aspire Art's Works on Paper Timed-Online auction features a collection of works by South African masters alongside significant pieces by their international peers including pieces by Victor Vasarely, Antoni Tàpies, Joan Miró, Gerard Richter, Henry Moore, and more.
11/07/2024
Caring for Your Artworks on Paper
Top Tips and Purchase Considerations
Artworks on paper, whether they are drawings, prints, watercolours, or pastels, offer a unique and delicate beauty that requires careful attention and maintenance. Proper care and informed purchasing decisions can ensure that your paper-based art remains vibrant and intact for many years. Here are some top tips for caring for your artworks on paper and key considerations when buying them.
05/07/2024
The Female Gaze Takes Center Stage
Current Achievements of Contemporary South African Artists
The month of July welcomes a new special collection of works for our Works on Paper Timed-Online auction. As a women-led auction house, the Aspire Art team is excited to present a collection of artworks by contemporary women artists shaping our artistic landscape locally and abroad.
The following artists have showcased their resilience and brilliance in the contemporary creative spheres. With a special feature of a work on paper by three artists in our current auction, we delve into their most recent achievements:
Gabrielle Goliath
A multidisciplinary artist, known for her sensitive negotiations and conceptually distilled understandings of complex social discourses, specifically in relation to gendered and sexualised violence, Gabrielle Goliath boasts an extraordinary career. Participating in numerous, prominent local and international exhibitions, she has also won multiple awards, notably the Future Generation Art Prize – Special Prize (2019), the Standard Bank Young Artist Award (2019), and the Institut Français, Afrique en Créations Prize at the Bamako Biennale (2017).
Currently undertaking a PhD at the Institute for Creative Arts (UCT), Goliath has recently featured at two prestigious Biennales. The first being in 2023 at the Sharjah Biennial 15, which took place in the United Arab Emirates from 7 February to 11 June. The 30th-anniversary edition of the Biennial was titled Thinking Historically in the Present and was conceived by the late Okwui Enwezor and curated by Hoor Al Qasimi.
Secondly, Goliath’s multi-channel video & sound cycles installation, Personal Accounts (2024), features at this year’s 60th International Art Exhibition for the Venice Biennale Foreigners Everywhere, curated by Adriano Pedrosa, and open to the public until the 24th of November.
Installation view of Personal Accounts, 2024-, multi-cycle video & sound installation, Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere, La Biennale di Venezia (2024), photos by Luc Meneghel, courtesy of the artist’s website.
Lady Skollie
Lot 42: Lady Skollie, Ikwe |, 2019. Estimate: R 35 000 - 45 000
Laura Windvogel, known as the artist and activist Lady Skollie, creates otherworldly images as her work delves into themes of gender, sex and the politics of lust and identity. A young, exciting artist, Skollie is taking the South African art world by storm, both within and outside of the gallery/museum space. Notable achievements include being part of the 2018 edition of OkayAfrica's 100 Women, an annual list which honours women across ten different fields for their achievements; commissioned to design the new R5 coin to commemorate 25 years of constitutional democracy in South Africa (2019); announced as the 10th recipient of the prestigious FNB Art Prize (2020) and receiving the prestigious Standard Bank Young Artist Award in 2022. Currently, Lady Skollie is showing at the Norval Foundation in Cape Town. Titled Groot Gat, the exhibition looks into the intersections of fantasy, history and indigenousness and takes place until the 15th of September this year.
Installation view of the Groot Gat at Norval Foundation, courtesy of their website.
Penny Siopis
Lot 91: Penny Siopis, Chambre Cinquante-six | Estimate: R 15 000 - 20 000
With a career spanning more than four decades, the cherished South African artist Penny Siopis, has been channelling what she refers to as the ‘poetics of vulnerability’ through engaging with topics such as migration, memory, body politics and the relations between the human and non-human through the mediums of painting, film/video, photography and installation.
Marking her first museum retrospective in Europe, Siopis participated in Part III of What If Women Ruled the World? at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (EMST), Greece until November of this year.
What if Women Ruled the World? is a unique program that has exclusively featured works by women artists. This unprecedented initiative to dedicate a year of multiple exhibitions by artists who identify as female, both for their permanent and temporary exhibitions, marks a first for a major public museum.
Views of the exhibition courtesy of the artist’s Instagram page
Other exciting contemporary female artists in our Works on Paper Timed-Online auction include Ruby Swinney, Diane Victor, Katharien de Villiers, Mia Chaplin, Grace Cross and many more!
LEFT: Lot 35: Ruby Swinney, Seeker | Estimate: R 30 000 - 40 000
RIGHT: Lot 27: Diane Victor, Portrait 1 (from the Smoke Drawings: Missing Children Series (Sacmec))
LEFT: Lot 30: Katharien de Villiers, Pet the Python | Estimate: R 7 000 - 10 000
RIGHT: Lot 43: Grace Cross, Childhood Blanket | Estimate: R 12 000 - 16 000
Auction
Works on Paper
4 - 16 July 2024
Discover more from Works on Paper
SALE ENQUIRIES
Cape Town: +27 21 422 5100 | amy@aspireart.net
Johannesburg: +27 10 109 7989 | carina@aspireart.net
05/07/2024
The Whimsical World of Beezy Bailey
Explore a magical collection of Works on Paper
Working in a variety of media, including printmaking, painting and sculpture, Beezy Bailey has been a practising artist for over 30 years and has held over 20 one-man shows in London, Johannesburg and Cape Town. Explore his whimsical and fantastical, world – rich in creative imagination – and bursting with delight, in a series of works featured in Aspire's Works on Paper Timed-Online Auction from 4-16 July.
27/06/2024
SALE RESULTS: 20th Century & Contemporary Art, 19 June 2024
Striking Results and New Records Achieved at Auction in Johannesburg
The recent offering by Aspire Art in Johannesburg reinforced the company's continued success in its specialised art segments and welcomed collectors’ optimism and confidence in the market. Featuring a strong collection of contemporary artworks as well as significant pieces from the 20th century, the auction further focused on women artists who performed well and debuted international works including a famous print by David Hockney which set a new auction record.
13/06/2024
Aspire Art presents David Hockney’s Hotel Acatlán: Two Weeks Later, 1985.
We are thrilled to offer on auction, for the first time in South Africa, Hockney’s impressive Hotel Acatlán: Two Weeks Later (1985) as part of the collection of our upcoming evening sale in Johannesburg on 19 June at 7 pm.