ABSA L'Atelier Merit Award

The ABSA L’Atelier is South Africa’s most prestigious art competition and is held annually for artists between ages 21 to 35. This award not only ensures South Africa’s emerging artists of recognition, but also affords them the opportunity to develop their talents abroad. A look through the list of previous winners will testify to this.
 Four prizes will be made available: First prize, two merit award prizes and the Gerard Sekoto Award for the most promising artist. 
One of the merit awards is done in cooperation with the Sylt Foundation. The merit winner will sopend a two-month residency on the island of Sylt in Northern Germany.

Congratulations to Nina Kruger, who won the Barclays L'Atelier Merit Award for her sculpture "those forgotten" and has become the next fellow of the Sylt Foundation. We are very happy about our new member!

Nina Kruger, Those Forgotten

Wood, 86 cm x 180 xm x 70 cm

Nina Kruger (21) is a fine art student based in Pretoria. She mainly works with wood, gelatin and gelatin-like media.

This artwork critically portrays the way in which the environment is being treated and disregarded.

The specific wood that is used is of a tree that was cut off because the tree messed on the driveway.

The figures portray a feeling of revenge. Each piece of wood is unique and can stand on its own. Each log has only a head crafted on the top. There is no body or feet carved into the wood.

Kruger left the wood as raw as possible, with only the head to symbolise the conscience or acknowledgement of nature. The bodies of these figures have no limbs; this signifies the way in which nature stands before man. Also, nature is displayed to overwhelm man, because the human element is very small compared to the natural element in each figure.

Barclays L'Atelier

Jaco van Schalkwyk, Nina Kruger, Indra Wussow, Bevan J. de Wet