Ms Simone

Ms Simone’s Favourite Exhibition, Imbeleko by Zizipho Poswa

One of the most inspiring experiences Ms Simone has had recently was attending Zizipho Poswa’s solo exhibition Imbeleko at Southern Guild in Cape Town. The exhibition runs from 12 February to 16 April 2026, and it left a lasting impression.

Imbeleko is a powerful new body of sculptural work rooted in Poswa’s isiXhosa heritage and her deep engagement with the rituals, labor and lineage associated with motherhood. The title refers to a traditional post-natal ceremony in which a child is introduced to their ancestors, symbolically anchoring new life to guidance, protection, and continuity. Rather than using the term metaphorically, Poswa embeds this ritual logic into the very fabric of her art, exploring motherhood as a shared, generational responsibility and gift.

For Ms Simone, Imbeleko stands out not only for its formal beauty and material mastery, but for its deeply felt articulation of how care, lineage and strength are carried forward through women’s lived experience.

Ms Simone’s Favourite Capsule Pick at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2026, Christine Jacobs

At this year’s ICTAF, the Capsule section, a dedicated space celebrating conscious design, craft and innovation within the broader contemporary scene, drew attention for its thoughtful fusion of art, material and function.

Christine Jacobs captured Ms Simone’s imagination as her favourite Capsule participant. Jacobs, a multimedia artist and designer based in Franschhoek, South Africa, works at the intersection of craft, land and narrative, drawing on her upbringing on a Free State sheep farm to shape a practice rooted in material sensitivity, landscape and memory.

Her work bridges functional design and fine art, exploring the relationship between environment, process and form in both sculptural pieces and crafted objects. Through tactile engagement with materials such as wool, clay, felt and fibres, Jacobs’s work evokes a deep connection to place, ecology and embodied making.

Ms Simone’s Favourite Work at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2026

Nolan Oswald Dennis,
biko.nomzamo, 2024
Receipt printers, micro-controller
4 9/10 × 3 × 3 in | 12.5 × 7.5 × 7.5 cm

Nolan Oswald Dennis’s Biko.Nomzamo (2024), a profound and thought-provoking work on view at the fair through Goodman Gallery.

Biko.Nomzamo, 2024
biko.nomzamo is a speculative installation in which receipt printers emit an imagined dialogue between Steve Biko and Winnie Mandela, generated through an algorithm trained on their writings.

The work reframes conversation as a political gesture, centring radical love, understood as care, responsibility, and collective holding, as foundational to decolonial thought and Black liberation.

The installation reflects Dennis’s broader practice, which explores what they describe as a Black consciousness of space, examining the material and metaphysical conditions of decolonization, and questioning the hidden structures that shape our social and political imagination.

For Ms Simone, Biko. Nomzamo stands out for its poetic engagement with historical figures, memory, language, and futurity, making it one of the most compelling and resonant works at the fair this year.

Have you experienced it yet?

Ms Simone’s Picks of the Week From the Investec Cape Town Art Fair

Live from the vibrant floor of the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Ms. Simone shares her standout works of the week, artists whose practices resonate deeply with this year’s conversations around material, memory, and identity.

1. Manyaku Mashilo
Mashilo creates layered, imaginative compositions that blend mixed-media painting, drawing, and collage to explore themes of spiritual identity, memory, ancestry, and belonging.

2. Joy Adeboye
A Lagos-based painter working primarily with watercolour, Adeboye’s practice navigates the complexities of desire, interiority, and self-perception, using pigment and paper to challenge conventional portrayals of the body and identity.

3. Kaleab Abate
Abate’s art is built through printmaking, charcoal, and layered materials, creating surreal and fragmented forms that merge figurative, abstract, and dream-like elements, interrogating memory, identity, and the tensions of contemporary urban life.

4. Katlego Tlabela
Tlabela’s multidisciplinary practice, spanning painting, printmaking, and collage, examines post-apartheid identity, representation, and aspiration. His work often depicts stylised, luxurious interiors and Black figures that reframe narratives around prosperity and belonging.

5. Seretse Moletsane
Moletsane works across media such as soil, cow dung, powder pigments, printmaking, and painting, drawing on intuition, spirituality, and ancestral heritage to create expressive, materially rich works that reflect Southern African abstraction and cultural depth.

6. Dimakatso Mathopa
Mathopa’s visual practice centres on vivid figurative painting that foregrounds femininity, identity, and heritage.

7. Vellmir Tucan
Tucan’s practice engages material, form, and expressive experimentation, questioning and expanding visual language through contemporary approaches to surface and structure.

Which booth has moved you the most this week?

This year’s Investec Cape Town Art Fair at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (20–22 February 2026) was a feast for the senses, and Ms. Simone reveals her most loved booths!

With over 126 exhibitors from 34 cities and work by nearly 490 artists, the fair’s “Listen” theme invites us to tune into artworks that speak across cultures, histories, and forms.