Samuel Nnorom, a multimedia artist from Nigeria, has won the 2021 Cassirer Welz Award, conferred by the Bag Factory Artists’ Studios, Johannesburg, in partnership with Strauss & Co, the leading South African fine art auction house, in the first year the annual award was expanded to include African artists outside South Africa.

The award, presented to an artist from Africa working in the medium of painting, photography, drawing, or sculpture, was inaugurated eleven years ago to give a platform to emerging artists to showcase their talents to a broader audience. 

The son of a tailor mother and a cobbler father, Nnorom’s early influences were the colorful fabrics and sewing threads in his family workshop. He also nurtured his artistic potential by sketching his father’s clients. Now as a fully-realized artist, Nnorom’s textured and layered multimedia sculptures made with Ankara cloth (or African wax print), the colorful cotton cloth with batik-inspired motifs ubiquitous in West African traditional fashion.

He uses the Ankara fabric to explore African identity within the multiversity of human experience – constellations of floating globes are covered in the characteristic cloth, and African traditional masks are surrounded by a riot of colorful print and lush, textured wall hangings that conjure images of ripening fruit.

Nnorom’s winning work was unanimously agreed upon by the four members of the Award’s selection jury to be exceptional. 

“He is one of the young contemporary artists in Africa to keep an eye on, and we believe the award will make a substantial contribution to his creative and professional growth,” says Strauss executive director Susie Goodman.

As this year’s winner, Nnorom receives a ten-week residency at the Bag Factory Artists’ Studios and a sum of R 25 000 towards a residency stipend, materials, and production costs. New work created during the residency will be exhibited in a solo show to be held in 2022.

Named after auctioneers Reinhold Cassirer and Stephan Welz, who pioneered the fine art auction business in South Africa, the Cassirer Welz Award is awarded only to artists under the age of 35 who are not already represented by a commercial gallery.