A multidisciplinary collaborative art exhibition by South African sculptor and poet Pitika Ntuli has brought renewed global attention to African art as it won a Global Fine Arts Award on Tuesday, May 18.

The online exhibition of bone sculptures titled 'Azibuyele Emasisweni' (Return to the Source) and hosted by the Melrose Gallery, is an enlightening showcase of the interconnectedness of humanity with each bone sculpture accompanied by a poem. 

The innovative display of South African and African art was brought to life with the help of thirty-three collaborators including Homi Bhabha, Ngugi Wa’Thiongo, and South Africa’s Minister of International Relations, Naledi Pandor, who contributed poems, reflections, and theoretical analysis.

The impressive display went on to win the Global Fine Art people’s choice “You-2" award, one of the two People’s Choice Awards in the Best Digital and Educational Programme of the seventh annual Global Fine Art Awards.

Ntuli who has spent much of his life in the service of liberating his country was super elated to hear that he had won the prize at the awards held in Paris out of the 116 nominees, which included exhibitions from some of the most established art galleries and museums in the world.

Accepting the award, he communicated via text message that his “overarching desire” was that his exhibition would show “we are all interconnected, interrelated and interdependent with each other and nature — a message that first peoples of the world have known since time immemorial”.

Ntuli also expressed his hope that African art would become more and more prominent and appreciated.

In her speech, Judy Holm, the founder and president of Global Fine Art Awards, recognized the significance of the Best Digital and Educational Programme category in which the exhibition was nominated as she stressed the significance of finding new ways of communicating art in the time of Covid-19.

She also gave special mention to the underlying spiritual and political meaning of the bone sculptures and the accompanying poems and essays.

Ntuli's 45 bone sculpture exhibition was praised as the 'highest artistic achievement' when it opened at South Africa's National Arts Festival which held virtually in July 2020.

As the title of the exhibition conveys, the 78-year-old South African artist is encouraging society to return to the ‘source’ of African spiritualism and knowledge as the means of resolving corruption, greed, slavery and poverty, just as he returned to the source of his expression.

Discover more African spiritualism and healing embodied by sculptures on Aworanka. There is a variety of contemporary African sculptors redefining modern art and tradition.