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Now in its 39th year, the 2023 SBYA Award winners are an all-star cast of South African artists. Selected for their talent, accomplishment, creativity and ingenuity, this year's winners are Lorin Sookool (Dance), Darren English (Jazz), Zoë Modiga (Music), Angel Ho (Performance Art), Kgomotso ‘MoMo’ Matsunyane (Theatre) and Stephané Conradie (Visual Art). They each receive a cash prize and a commission to premier new works at the 50th annual National Arts Festival in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) next year.
ANGEL HO: PERFORMANCE ART
Musical production and performance, DJ work, performance art, costuming, artistic direction and film make up the wide-ranging practice of Angel Ho (29), a multidisciplinary artist in the truest sense. Ho combines performance and drag with the digital space to deconstruct contemporary culture through a feminine, gender non-conforming and queer lens. Her discography includes Death Becomes Her (2018) and Angel-Ho [The Live Album] (2023).
DARREN ENGLISH: JAZZ
Darren English (32) is an internationally award-winning trumpeter (multi-instrumentalist, actually) and composer. Jazz Times Magazine describes his sound as "heart-warming and pure" – as lovely a compliment as any. He recently won his second Global Peace Song Award (GPSA) in Los Angeles for his song Requiem in Peace. He's gained recognition in South Africa, Europe and the U.S., where he's spent time studying, performing and recording with diverse artists.
KGOMOTSO 'MOMO' MATSUNYANE: THEATRE
With a visionary outlook, actor, playwright and director Kgomotso ‘MoMo’ Matsunyane (35) is brilliant at creating opportunities for herself. She was the head writer and performer of the 2023 Naledi Award-winning Hlakanyana: The Musical (directed by 1982 SBYA Award winner Janice Honeyman), for which she was also named best supporting actress. This year, Matsunyane was the festival director for The Market Theatre's celebrated Zwakala Festival, and she mentored the winning group.
LORIN SOOKOOL: DANCE
Interdisciplinary practitioner Lorin Sookool (30) is a contemporary dancer and choreographer whose output also spans performance, sound, photography, film and costuming. She performed a solo offering for the 2023 Liverpool Biennial, Woza Wenties, and is fast gaining global attention for her work around complex socio-political themes in South Africa. In 2022 she worked with modern dance pioneer Roberto Castello and participated in the creation of Dance Concert, an improvised dance work that had a touring performance.
STEPHANÉ EDITH CONRADIE: VISUAL ART
Though she trained as a printmaker, it's her bricolage assemblages that Stephané Edith Conradie (32) is known for. Her work's in permanent collections around the world and she's exhibited globally too from New York City to Amsterdam, and of course in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Conradie's a lecturer in print media at Michaelis School of Fine Art, while her research work focuses on making sense of what she calls her social and economic 'situatedness' in a South African context. Conradie is a co-founder of the group of printmakers known as the Black Ink Collective.
ZOE MODIGA: MUSIC
Singer, songwriter and performer Zoë Modiga (30) has her background in classical and jazz training, though she's equally comfortable in house, indie and pop. She reached the top eight of The Voice reality singing competition in South Africa, among her already long list of accolades. Human experience and identity inform Modiga's work; her distinct sound tells a modern, evolving African story. She released both her debut and sophomore albums, Yellow: The Novel and Inganekwane, respectively, under her label Yelloëwax.
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