Standard Bank And National Arts Festival Announce 2026 Young Artist Award Winners

The 2026 Standard Bank Young Artist Award winners. Image supplied

It is within this shifting cultural moment that the National Arts Festival (NAF), custodians of the Standard Bank Young Artist Awards (SBYA), together with their long-standing partner Standard Bank, announce the 2026 cohort, recognising a group of artists whose work reflects the expanding languages of South African art.

The Standard Bank Young Artist Awards remain one of the country's most respected acknowledgements of creative excellence.

This year's awardees represent a cohort of artists firmly grounded in their practices and recognised by their peers, whose work moves fluidly between forms, histories, and audiences.

Their selection marks a moment in which South African artists continue to expand the ways in which culture is produced, performed, and experienced, with the awards offering an added platform that supports their trajectory to the next stage of their careers.

Meet the 2026 Standard Bank Young Artist Award winners

The 2026 Standard Bank Young Artist Award winners are:

• Bronwyn Katz – Visual Arts
• Gabi Motuba – Jazz
• Jason Jacobs – Theatre
• Lee-ché Janecke – Dance
• Ndumiso Manana – Music

Together, these artists reflect a cultural landscape in which artistic practice moves between disciplines while remaining attentive to history, place, and community.

In the Visual Arts category, Bronwyn Katz works through sculpture and installation to develop a speculative language that draws on land, memory, and embodied forms ofknowledge.

Her practice considers how histories that resist traditional archives might be carried through material, gesture and sound, proposing alternative ways of recording and transmitting communal memory.

The 2026 Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art - Browyn Katz. Image supplied

In Jazz, Gabi Motuba has built an expansive body of work as a vocalist, composer, and educator whose practice moves between avant-garde experimentation and deep philosophical inquiry.

Her compositions position sound as both intellectual investigation and spiritual discipline, placing music in dialogue with literature, history, and political thought.

Gabi Motuba is the 2026 Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz. Image supplied

The Theatre award is presented to Jason Jacobs, a storyteller whose work draws from Nama-Khoi indigenous heritage to explore questions of identity, history, and community.Moving between theatre and film, Jacobs brings lived histories into contemporary narrative form while contributing to the recovery and articulation of First Nations stories within South Africa's cultural landscape.

Jason Jacobs is the 2026 Standard Bank Young Artist for Theatre. Image supplied

In Dance, the award recognises Lee-ché Janecke, known internationally as Litchi HOV. His practice emerges from the world of popular choreography and global performance culture rather than the conventional institutions of contemporary dance.

His work, widely recognised through collaborations across the music industry and large-scale performance platforms, reflects how choreography now travels across digital culture, stadium stages, and international audiences.

Lee-ché Janecke is the 2026 Standard Bank Young Artist for Dance. Image supplied

Completing the cohort is Ndumiso Manana, the award recipient for Music. A singer, songwriter and producer, Manana's work moves across genres including R&B, electronic, Afrobeats and acoustic traditions.

His compositions combine introspective lyricism with expansive sonic experimentation, reflecting a generation of musicians navigating both local and global sound worlds.

Nondumiso Mañana is the 2026 Standard Bank Young Artist for Music. Image supplied

Each award recipient will develop new work that will premiere at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda in 2026, continuing a long-standing tradition in which the award functions not only as recognition but also as a platform for artistic development and presentation.

Speaking on behalf of Standard Bank, group head of sponsorship, Bonga Sebesho, reflected on the significance of this year's recipients: “Through the Standard Bank Young Artist Awards we continue to support artists who are shaping the cultural landscape in real time. The 2026 recipients reflect the depth and diversity of creative practice in South Africa today, from artists working with memory and language to those transforming global popular culture. As Standard Bank, our commitment to the arts is grounded in the belief that artists help us interpret the present while imagining the future, and we are proud to support these remarkable voices as they continue to expand the possibilities of their disciplines.”

National Arts Festival's CEO, Monica Newton, adds, "Congratulations to the 2026 Standard Bank Young Artists! This year's recipients arrive with something to say and the award gives them the platform and momentum to say it louder. What excites me most is watching how this moment becomes a turning point: suddenly there are bigger stages, bolder projects, wider audiences and of course, artists with the clarity and skill to make the best of it. South Africa has no shortage of brilliant young artists. What we need is more pathways that actually accelerate their careers—and that's exactly what this partnership delivers. We are grateful to Standard Bank for their ongoing support which transforms artists' careers and lives.”

For more than four decades, the Standard Bank Young Artist Awards have identified over 180 creatives whose work reshapes their respective fields. The 2026 cohort continues that legacy, demonstrating that South African art remains a space of invention, dialogue, and cultural exchange.

The Standard Bank Young Artists will perform at the National Arts Festival between 25 June and 5 July 2026. The NAF programme will be revealed in May 2026.