Kelebogile Marope on Winning the 2026 FNB Art Prize

For years, contemporary art fairs have acted as a looking glass into the future of African creativity, but at the 2026 FNB Art Joburg, the focus is trained beautifully on the present. This year, the prestigious FNB Art Prize has been awarded to Kelebogile Marope, a historic milestone marking her as the first winner from Botswana to receive this coveted honour. 

Selected by an esteemed jury comprising Kim Kandan (FNB Art Joburg representative), curator Mike Mavura, and collector and interior designer Véronique Savigné, Marope’s win has been celebrated as a “compelling expansion of contemporary African sculpture.” The jury praised her ability to claim traditionally male-dominated media and materials to explore deeply personal domestic and oral histories. 

To capture the essence of this monumental moment, Just Trimmings sat down with Marope to discuss her intuitive creative process, how personal grief has reshaped her relationship with memory, and the thrilling (and terrifying) reality of what lies ahead. 

Listening to the Objects: An Intuitive Material Practice 

At first glance, Marope’s artistic universe is constructed from the mundane. From ironing boards to slabs of cement, her work elevates ordinary, domestic items into sacred vessels of memory. But her process is far from planned; it is a collaborative dialogue between what she feels, her eyes, hands, and the objects themselves. 

“The mediums that I like to work with usually depend on a found object. Any object within the home,” Marope explains. “I would say my eyes do the work first. You are passing through the house and you’re like, ‘Oh, that bedsheet,’ and I find myself taking it and putting it aside to play around with it. The object sometimes tells me what it wants.” 

This deep intuition allows her to seamlessly transition between mediums. Whether she is experimenting with plaster, wood, or raw construction materials, she lets the material guide her into what it unveils itself to be. In one of her most striking works, a domestic washbasin is made not in porcelain, but in expanded polyurethane foam. By applying, sanding, and meticulously shaping the industrial foam, she coaxes a heavy, voluptuous body out of an incredibly lightweight material. Completely upending the viewer’s tactile expectations. 

“Archaeologies of Use”: Excavating the Present 

A central pillar of Marope’s latest body of work is her thematic exploration, Archaeologies of Use. Inspired by her volunteer work on archaeology projects abroad, she draws a poignant parallel between how society treats ancient artifacts and how we treat our active personal histories as they’re unfolding. 

Traditional archaeologists wait centuries to dig up a site, celebrating the discovery of where ancient people washed their clothes or cooked their meals. Marope asks a vital question: Why must we wait for things to be lost and rediscovered to recognize their sacredness and beauty? 

“Our histories are happening as we speak,” Marope shares. “You don’t have to wait for time to tell you it has passed, that it’s special. Celebrate the ‘now’ now, as new as it is. It doesn’t have to get old or vintage for you to start celebrating it.” 

This philosophy is physically manifested in her sculptures of irons encased in concrete, preserved at various “stages” of excavation. By trapping these active domestic objects in heavy, architectural concrete, she creates an immediate, exciting sense of discovery. An excavation of our current lives, happening in real-time. 

This urge to preserve the fleeting nature of the everyday also stems from a fear of losing what cannot be physically held. During a home renovation, Marope recalled watching workers break down the old bathroom tiles of her childhood home. Seeing the bare, empty outlines left on the wall, she realized that it was the absence of the tiles that made her clearly see her own family’s history. 

“There’s something about objects that we miss a lot,” she reflects. “And it scares me a bit. If we don’t see our everyday physical objects that much, how about our personal histories which are not tangible? The oral stories our mothers tell us… so much passes through us because it’s seen as everyday.” 

Navigating Grief and the Healing Power of Memory 

The concept of preserving memory has taken on an even more profound, emotional weight for Marope following the passing of her father. Rather than casting a shadow of heavy, immobilizing grief over her studio, this loss has catalyzed a deeper, more joyful appreciation for the time they shared. 

Through her art, Marope is actively reconstructing her relationship with her father, finding beauty in the retrospect. “Now, I value the memory more,” she says softly. “When I look back at my relationship with my dad… there were many points of reference that I didn’t see back then. But because the ‘then’ is now, it’s all coming in. I appreciate that now I have the voice and the skill to be able to articulate it, and move through it, not with heavy grief, but being like, ‘I remember” With joy.” 

A Lifeline for the Next Generation of Artists from Botswana

As the first artist from Botswana to win the FNB Art Prize, Marope is acutely aware of the weight of her achievement, particularly for the young students and aspiring artists she mentors in Botswana. 

For her, the prize is far more than a personal accolade; it is concrete proof to her mentees that their wildest creative dreams are both valid and attainable. 

“For me, it’s huge,” she says with excitement. “When a student comes in, they give their all. As adults, we sometimes learn to keep things aside, saying ‘some dreams don’t come true for us.’ But teenagers and children believe they will. They ask, ‘Do you think it’ll come true?’ For me to be able to say to them, ‘It is going to come true’ and have evidence, look, it can happen. You are the lifeline of your dream. You are the one holding that rope so it won’t die. Go on and run.” 

Looking Ahead: FNB Art Joburg and the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) 

Art lovers will get their first major look at Marope’s winning work at the FNB Art Joburg fair this September at the Sandton Convention Centre. However, the art world is already buzzing about her upcoming solo exhibition scheduled for September 2027 at the historic Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG). 

When asked which milestone feels more nerve-wracking, the immediate exposure of the art fair or a massive solo exhibition at JAG, Marope laughs nervoursly. “At the fair, it’s intimate. But Johannesburg Art Gallery… it’s like giving birth in front of everybody! I look forward to it, but it is a big moment.” 

The spacious, historic halls of JAG will provide the perfect environment for viewers to fully immerse themselves in the physical scale, shadows, and textures of Marope’s work. Qualities in her artwork that she moulds, often get completely lost on pixelated screens. Under the guidance of her curator, the upcoming shows will likely weave together her older, highly-detailed works with her poetic new experiments, offering a comprehensive look at an artist operating at the absolute peak of her expression. 

Armed with the creative freedom, financial support, and global platform provided by the FNB Art Prize, Kelebogile Marope is no longer creating in secret. The world is watching, and she is ready to show us the extraordinary magic hidden in the corners of our everyday lives.