After a return to a physical fair after two years paused by Covid-19, much has changed and much has stayed the same for Investec Cape Town Art Fair (ICTAF). It is a necessarily evolved project, whose digital component, careful crowd control and Covid isolation-focused exhibition reflected the changes of the pandemic on the art world, and yet it’s ability to galvanise a diverse community of art lovers remains unchanged. With over 22,000 visitors to the 2022 event, there’s no doubt this year’s ICTAF can be considered a resounding success.

But maybe the visitors themselves are changing too. Owing to South Africa’s separate and unequal past (and present), the art world has been a site of binary oppositions as well. Just a few short years ago, the fair’s attendees reflected this - with a predominantly privileged, white and formally educated audience. But this is no longer the case. The emergence of more space for BIPOC artists like the incredible Cinthia Sifa Mulenga and curators like Nkule Mabaso, whose eye reflects the essence of South Africa’s people, the audience has shifted too. The fair played host to a diverse range of attendees, all of whom came to commune and celebrate the rejuvenation of this event. Whether that’s cool kids from Cape Town’s buzzing creative scene, or the flights packed with edgy Joburg art fiends looking for an art escape for the weekend.

In many ways, this change in dynamic and demographic is testament to the fair’s relevance in a changing world. In our preview coverage, we touched on the fair’s intentional decisions to increase the representation of women – both in terms of leadership roles internally, and by inculcating spaces focused on women and women’s art – such as the Women’s Art walkabout facilitated by Anelisa Mangcu. This is only one element of course, and the quest for a more transformed art space in South Africa does require an intersectional approach. Nevertheless, the ability of the event to retain its key demographic, while becoming a home for a new generation of art enthusiasts is a feather in their cap.

It’s an interesting change of scenery for ICTAF. As Mary Corrigall writes in The Art Newspaper, the 2022 edition missed out on reduced numbers of foreign - predominantly European - collectors, who are traveling in fewer numbers to art fairs and exhibitions around the world. However, it could certainly be argued that this resulted in a healthy pivot towards focusing on an art market for the young local audiences who populate the space. As Corrigall reports, “most of the dealers on the ground observed that the impact of fewer international collectors resulted in sales of smaller, lower priced works, by younger or emerging artists”.

Some of these artists formed part of traditional heavyweight South African gallery offerings from Goodman Gallery, Everard Read and SMAC, while others, like Rharha Nembard found their way through new emerging platforms like the SOLO exhibition or the Black-owned Johannesburg based Botho Project Space, owned by the world-famous Nelson Makamo. Aligning with the change in audiences, the work seemed to reflect the diversity of expression as well. While some works were concerned with politics or social justice, others simply chronicled everyday African life. In the unveiling of Samurai Farai’s ‘Diversity of the Future’ project, guests could use colour and symbol to help co-create Farai’s vision of a future connected by shared language and symbolism.

While it may be an overstatement to suggest that the axes of privilege that affected art fairs around the world do not apply to ICTAF, or that all the work of transforming towards more inclusive spaces is complete, but the bold Blackness and Africanness of the fair’s artists and audiences suggest that future defined by diversity is no longer an impossible one.

Words Binwe Adebayo

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Published on 24/04/2022