Not only is he the first Northern Cape artist to win a Portrait Award, he’s also the youngest to take the title in the history of the competition.
Durbanville, Cape Town (02 September 2025) – The winners of Rust en Vrede’s 2025 Portrait Award were announced last week, where a young Upington star was born. Prize winner Malik Mani became the first-ever winner from this province and the youngest winner yet!
Running for over a decade now, the competition, which sees 100 works of art chosen from artists across all ages in South Africa, only happens every two years.
This year’s top contenders were a crowd of talented local artists, which included the Western Cape’s Ashley Ogilvy and Joseph Dolby in second and third place, as well as Themba Mkhangeli, Monique Day-Wilde, and Ruan Huisamen in fourth, fifth and sixth places respectively.
Mani’s hyperrealistic, conceptual work stole the show, winning him R150,000 in prize money and a solo exhibition at Rust-en-Vrede Gallery in 2027. The artwork, ‘Mask,’ was drawn in pencil and depicts a male face breaking through a cracked surface that resembles peeling paint.
Mani describes his approach and artistic style as surrealistic.
“Realism often distracts the audience from the intended message and the underlying significance of the portrait. I had to devise a strategy to shift the audience’s focus from the technical skill to the underlying message,” comments Mani.
An amazing diversity of mediums and approaches made it into the competitions’ top 100.
Every piece of art went through rigorous judging by an expert panel including art critic Sean O’Toole, contemporary artist Thonton Kabeya, and UJ Art Gallery curator Dr Dineke Orton.
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If you’d like to get a better look at the incredible artistic talent that SA champions, the Top 40 works from the competition will be on display at the Rust-en-Vrede Gallery and Clay Museum in Durbanville from 30 August to 29 October 2025.
Next year, the gallery has announced that it will launch its Junior Portrait Award for participants aged 16-18, giving younger artistic sparks a chance to make their mark in the art world, too.
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