Art Auction
- Charity Art Auction 2026
Art with Purpose
Discover extraordinary works from South Africa’s most talented contemporary artists. Every purchase supports our mission to bring positive change to communities across the nation.
Attendance is free; however, seating is limited and booking is required. Book via 
For any enquiries, email michelle@smilefoundationsa.org or contact 083 325 2766.
Each piece represents a unique vision and contributes to positive social impact
Artist
Alpheus Ngoepe
Quilt of Hope
Medium
Acrylic on Canvas
Size
208 x 176 cm (unframed)
Year
2025
Price
R50 000
About the Artist
Born on 24 July 1995 in Limpopo and now based in Johannesburg, Alpheus creates art rooted in self-reflection, identity and humanity. His work explores the layers of people, city life and the environment, turning them into abstract visual stories. Drawing from photography, he translates what he sees and experiences into paintings, often using text as a meaningful symbolic element. Beyond his artistic practice, he is passionate about social impact and works with philanthropic organisations to help uplift disadvantaged communities. Through his art, Alpheus hopes to inspire both personal reflection and wider change, leaving a meaningful mark on the world around him.
Artist
Melissa Haiden
Spring at the Wilds
Medium
Oil & Pastel on Canvas
Size
107 x 172 x 3 cm (panels framed natural wood, triptych)
Year
2025
Price
R135 000
About the Artist
Melissa Haiden (born 1987) resides in Johannesburg, South Africa. She graduated from The University of Cape Town in 2009 with an Honours Degree in Theatre and Performance. Haiden’s greater body of work is inspired by her background in physical performance, is interdisciplinary and varies between mediums, however, is largely expressed through video and live performance, oils, acrylic and sketching.
Artist
Nwabisa Ntlokwana
Walk the Walk
Medium
Jacaranda wood sculpture
Size
56 x 40 cm
Year
2026
Price
R27 000
About the Artist
Born in 1988 in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, Nwabisa Ntlokwana is a Johannesburg-based visual artist whose work explores themes of environmental sustainability and her interpretation of modern motherhood. Inspired by the vibrant energy of Africa and the richness of its cultural nuances, her practice is grounded in a contemporary aesthetic and brought to life through striking 3D wall sculptures.
Using upcycled materials, Nwabisa creates works that are not only bold visual statements, but also thoughtful reflections on transformation, renewal and motherhood. Her pieces carry a strong sense of regeneration, giving them both depth and meaning while allowing them to stand out for their beauty and purpose.
Artist
Bekezela Mabena
The Decay of Home & Memory
Medium
Acrylic on canvas with found material
Size
90 x 78 cm (framed)
Year
2025
Price
R30 000
About the Artist
Born in 1996, Bekezela spent his early years in Zimbabwe before moving to South Africa in 2008. He studied at Jiyana Secondary School and later at Artist Proof Studio, where he learned printmaking and began developing his mixed media practice.
His work explores the complex relationship between nature, humanity and migration. Through thoughtful and visually compelling pieces, Bekezela invites viewers to reflect on their own place within a bigger shared world. With a strong interest in storytelling and social commentary, his art opens up meaningful conversations, encourages empathy and creates connection across cultures.
Artist
Thamsanga Mfuphi
Umnikelo Yami (My Offerings)
Medium
Cow dung, acrylic, and pastels on brown paperboard
Size
130 x 90 cm (unframed)
Year
2026
Price
R25 000
About the Artist
Born in 1998 in Estcourt, a rural area of KwaZulu-Natal, he is a South African artist whose life journey has shaped his path and personal outlook. After the passing of his mother in 2002, he and his siblings moved to Zimbabwe to live with their stepmother’s family. During the thirteen years he spent there, he faced many hardships, including child abuse, lack of access to education, food insecurity, and periods of displacement.
Despite these challenges, he remained determined to build a better future. He later returned to South Africa and completed his matric in 2017. He then enrolled at the University of Johannesburg in the School of Business and Economics, where he pursued a Bachelor of Commerce in Business Management. Following this, he further developed his artistic skills by studying Printmaking at Artist Proof Studio.
Artist
Simon Moshapo Jr
Yotuwa na Vhaffiyo
Medium
Jacaranda wood & acrylic paint, wooden sculpture
Size
43 x 53 x 55 cm
Year
2023
Price
R50 000
About the Artist
Kholofelo Simon Moshapo Jnr is a South African multidisciplinary visual artist, born in 1991 in Limpopo and raised in Indermark village, where his cultural roots first began shaping his creative voice. He studied Fine Art at Tshwane University of Technology, completing his National Diploma in 2015.
Working across sculpture, drawing, painting and printmaking, his practice is deeply personal and shaped by his experience of living with epilepsy. Through texture, symbolism and materials such as wood, he explores identity, vulnerability, healing and resilience.
His work is also driven by a deep love for Tshivenda culture, which he honours by drawing on its traditions, values and visual language. Now based in Johannesburg and working from August House, Kholofelo creates art that connects personal experience with wider social and cultural conversations.
Artist
Blessing Blaai
When Man Rode Horses
Medium
Acrylic on canvas
Size
86 x 87 cm (unframed)
Year
2025
Price
R54 000
About the Artist
Blessing Blaai is a South African artist whose work is shaped by questions of upbringing, environment and lived experience. Trained in painting, drawing and printmaking, he later refined his practice through a deeper focus on printmaking.
Working across painting, watercolour, ink and mixed media, his art explores memory, identity and place through layered, expressive compositions. Alongside his studio practice, Blaai is also an accomplished muralist, with both private and public commissions that bring art into shared urban spaces.
His work has featured in notable group exhibitions, including African Mobilities: This is Not a Refugee Camp. Beyond the gallery, he is committed to community engagement and arts education, having facilitated visual art programmes for inner-city children in Johannesburg through The Market Foundation.
Artist
Johan Stegmann
The Tragic death of De La Rey (Die Moord van Oom Koos)
Medium
Etching
Edition
18/20
Size
30 x 20 cm (framed)
Year
2018
Price
R7 000
About the Artist
Johan Stegmann is a South African artist known for his highly detailed charcoal drawings & etchings in a classical (euro-centric) style, but with a subversive twist. His work offers mash-ups of different periods in history that contain colliding identities, perspectives, ideologies and opinions. As a white Afrikaans male, Stegmann embraces his own identity with a performative purpose, as seen in his installations, public engagements, and video works. With a penchant for paradox, Stegmann’s work indulges a problematic voice to the point where it becomes something else, something vibrant with duality.
Artist
Dustin August
No Longer Soft in the Light
Medium
Mixed media, Lithograph, pulp Painting
Size
59 x 84 cm (framed)
Year
2024
Price
R10 000
About the Artist
Dustin August is an independent, self-taught, multi-disciplined visual artist. His current creative outlets are photography, graphic design and illustration. He has a formal background in architecture which guides and anchors his approach to these disciplines.
His practice is anchored in process and experimentation where he often returns to the themes of deconstruction, layering and transparency. While highlighting the process of making, his work is also a call to take up space. It is a stylised portrait of the queer body and is guided by the overarching driver to showcase and capture as many nuances of the queer experience. It is experimental, developing and fluid yet also considered and composed.
In 2022 he produced his first public mural with HALLS at the Playground in Braamfontein. The mural artwork also made it to the cover of BIZART magazine Issue 03_Spring 2022. He has since completed three more murals at Blackbrick Hotel in Sandton and Math Restaurant in Waterfall. He has showcased at Turbine Art Fair in 2024 and was part of the RMB Talent Unlocked 2024 artist program and Latitudes Art Fair 2025. At the end of 2025, he completed a year-long residency at August House that saw him develop and explore his artistic practice. Dustin lives and works in Johannesburg.
Artist
Mbali Tshabalala
The Window that Watched her Unveiling
Medium
Hand painting, collage and acrylic on paper
Size
144 x 200 cm (framed)
Year
2025
Price
R135 000
About the Artist
Mbali Tshabalala is a South African multidisciplinary artist, curator, and creative entrepreneur born in East London, Eastern Cape. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine and Applied Arts from Tshwane University of Technology and further developed her practice through printmaking studies at Artist Proof Studio, alongside a background in Graphic Design and Darkroom photography. She began her artistic career in 2019 after more than seven years in curatorial and art administration, adopting a “curator as artist” approach. Tshabalala has held roles such as assistant curator at Zeitz MOCAA and has led initiatives including The Joburg Fringe. She is the founder of Collective UNTITLD and Anecdotes Gallery.
Her work is held in notable collections including Rand Merchant Bank, JP Morgan Chase, William Humphreys Gallery, Art Bank South Africa, and Spier Art Trust, and has been exhibited at institutions such as Pretoria Art Association, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg Art Gallery, as well as auctioned through Strauss & Co. and Aspire Art Auction. Tshabalala’s practice spans collage, painting, printmaking, drawing, and photography, exploring the intersectionality of Black women’s experiences.
Central to her artistic expression is her own identity, particularly within the context of a post-colonial African city. “I critique the collision between indigenous culture and a Eurocentric urban landscape, highlighting the neglect and its impact on mental health.” Tshabalala’s artwork intertwines ancient African knowledge systems with contemporary lived experiences through storytelling that reflects this cultural collision and its consequences.
Artist
Kathryn Barnard
She’s a Fire Andromedae
Medium
Mixed media on canvas
Size
100 x 60cm (Framed)
Year
2025
Price
R48 000
About the Artist
Kathryn Barnard is a South African multidisciplinary contemporary artist based in Johannesburg. Raised in Beijing, China, she studied Fine Arts at Stellenbosch University and later completed a BA in English and Communication Science at Varsity College. She has worked closely with galleries, artists, and creative agencies, building extensive experience in the art industry.
Since 2014, Barnard has sold more than 100 artworks, including commissioned pieces for private collectors, galleries, companies, and international clients. Her practice is marked by strong experimentation and craftsmanship. Her series The Seraphim Lovers (2022), created using a 24K gold-infused ink medium developed through years of testing, was exhibited at Gavin Project Gallery in Sandton alongside works by notable South African artists.
Her 2024 exhibition, Pareidolia, explored the relationship between art and psychology by placing the viewer at the centre of the experience, encouraging deeper reflection and connection.
Barnard has also completed large-scale public and charity projects, including an eighteen-by-three-metre mural commissioned for a children’s playground in Ukulhas, Maldives, in 2022. Since then, she has continued painting murals in South Africa. In 2023, she opened Artjamming Sandton, a shared creative studio designed to make art more accessible and to inspire artists of all ages. In July 2025, she was interviewed on METRO FM, where she spoke about her work, creativity, and the value of art.
Artist
Wisani Manyisi
Anticipation of the Soul
Medium
Mixed media on paper
Size
180 x 180 cm (unframed)
Year
2026
Price
R56 000
About the Artist
My Journey as a Contemporary Artist. I am Wisani Manyisi, a contemporary artist born in Limpopo, South Africa. Currently working and residing in Johannesburg. My artistic journey is deeply rooted in my fascination by the past and psychology, which I juxtapose with my childhood memories. My creative endeavours began in my youth, when the only available medium was clay, wires, wood and other found objects. This early exploration of diverse mediums laid the foundation for my artistic development. I started my art journey in 2010 when I first got to Funda Centre where I attained my Foundation in Art Practice. I then proceeded to the Tshwane University of Technology in 2013-2017, where I completed a Diploma and a B-Tech in Fine Art. Further expanding my education, I obtained a Postgraduate Certificate in Education, specialising in Creative and Visual Arts, from the University of Johannesburg in 2019. My diverse artistic training encompasses printmaking, drawing, and sculpture.
This multifaceted approach reflects my commitment to artistic expression. My work has been recognised through several achievements, including being selected as a student mentor in 2015-2016 and participating in the Association of Art in Pretoria “student exhibition” that year. I was also a finalist in 2019 at Thami Mnyele Art Competition, Sasol New Signature Competition finalist in 2023, 2024 and 2025.I am crowned as Umsizi No Pende overall winner in 2025.
Artist
Sizwe Khoza
My Whole Life you Watched me from Afar
Medium
Charcoal drawing on canvas
Size
100 x 200 cm (unframed)
Year
2021
Price
R64 000
About the Artist
Sizwe Khoza was born two years before the end of the Civil War in his country of birth, Mozambique, and moved to South Africa in 1995.
He matriculated in 2010 from Nkumbula Comprehensive School and, during his matric year, attended Saturday classes at Artist Proof Studio. Khoza graduated from Artist Proof Studio in 2012. In 2013, he was offered a residency at William Humphrey Art Gallery (WHAG) in Kimberley under the mentorship of the late Dumisani Mabaso. He was then offered an internship at Artist Proof Studio, and in 2014 started teaching printmaking to first- and second-year students full time. Twice a year he travels to Mozambique to take photographs, and upon his return creates new works inspired by his visit back home. Khoza specialises in painting, monotype and combined printmaking techniques, and has recently had numerous exhibitions with Artist Proof Studio and various other galleries.
Artist
Thokozani Mthiyane
Ancient Songs Awakening VII
Medium
Soil, charcoal, mixed media on canvas
Size
90 x 110 cm (framed)
Year
2023
Price
R30 000
About the Artist
Thokozani Mthiyane is a Johannesburg based artist. He has been influenced by his time spent under the tutelage of artists Sfiso KaMkame and Thami Jali. Mthiyane has experience in children’s theatre with the Madcap’s Educational Theatre Company, after which he had his first solo exhibition at the Flat Gallery in Durban. Mthiyane’s artistic flare stems from his creative combination of painting and poetry. He has exhibited for Alliance Françoise and Resolution Gallery in Johannesburg. In 2015 he had a solo exhibition titled “Whetin dey happen Lagos/ Jozi” at Mzansi Gallery Johannesburg South Africa.
He was represented by Art Eye Gallery and had his solo show titled “Soul Songs: The shape of my head.” Whenever Mthiyane paints he plays a lot of jazz in the background and that also fuels his thought process. His works are more about personal expression and the channelling of innate creative forces than they are stylistically reflexive engagements with the discourse of art history. “The works are only premeditated up to maybe the first gesture. After that to complete them, it’s something completely different”, he says.
Artist
Usha Seejarim
Innocent
Medium
Tile Mosaic
Size
163 x 88.5 x 5 cm (framed)
Year
2021
Price
R350 000
About the Artist
Usha Seejarim is a conceptual artist whose practice interrogates the intersection of gender,labour and power through the transformation of everyday, domestic objects. By recontextualising materials such as irons, brooms, and wooden pegs, Seejarim’s sculpture and installations destabilise normative associations of women’s work, reframing acts of care and repetition as aesthetic and political gestures.
Born in Bethal, South Africa in 1974, the artist obtained a B Tech Honours in Fine Art from the University of Johannesburg (1999) and a Master’s in Fine Art from the University of Witwatersrand (2008). She has a Master’s in Business Administration awarded by the University of Reading, UK through Henley Business School (2025).
Seejarim has held numerous solo exhibitions, including Used at Southern Guild New York (Forthcoming) (2026); Unfolding Servitude at Southern Guild Cape Town (2025). She has also presented solo exhibitions at SMAC Gallery (Cape Town and Johannesburg), Kunstinstituut Melly. (Rotterdam), SCAC Marestaing (France) and a traveling exhibition, Venus at Home (2012-2014), at Northwest University Gallery, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Durban Art Gallery and the National Arts Festival in Makhanda. Her work has been featured in group exhibitions at Städtishe Galerie Bremen, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Dak’Art Biennale, Nirox Sculpture Park, FADA Gallery at the University of Johannesburg and Iziko South African National Gallery, among others.
Seejarim is a visiting Professor of Practice with the SARChI Chair in South African Art and Visual Culture at the University of Johannesburg. She has received multiple awards, including the Southern African Foundation for Contemporary Art’s SEED Award, Investec Cape Town Art Fair’s Tomorrow’s/Today Prize, and Ampersand Fellowship Award.
Her work is included in the collections of the Iziko South African National Gallery, Southern African Foundation for Contemporary Art, Johannesburg Art Gallery, and Constitutional Court in Johannesburg, among others.
Artist
Samurai Farai
Mwari, The Creator
Medium
Oil stick, acrylic paint, japanese ink and silver leaf on watercolour paper
Size
135 x 113.5 cm (framed)
Year
2024
Price
R86 000
About the Artist
Contemporary Visual Artist · Cultural Innovator · Creative Director South Africa
Samurai Farai is a contemporary visual artist and cultural innovator whose multidisciplinary practice spans fine art, public art, design, fashion, brand collaborations, music, and digital media. He is recognised for a distinctive visual language that merges Cubist structure with Afrocentric portraiture and contemporary abstraction, and for a career that bridges gallery practice with high-profile international brand and cultural collaborations.
His work has been exhibited at major contemporary art fairs and galleries, commissioned by global brands and cultural institutions, featured in international fashion and music contexts, and viewed by millions of audiences worldwide through digital platforms and streaming media. He is widely recognised as a leading creative voice within contemporary African visual culture.
Artist
Gustav Krantz
Weight Down
Medium
Found object charcoal drawing
Size
1.8m x 4m (unframed)
Year
2024
Price
R19 000
About the Artist
Gustav Krantz is a visual artist based in Johannesburg. They graduated from the University of Johannesburg in 2022. Their works appear in a number of private collections. Krantz’s work explores the tension between labour and tending in a post-apartheid landscape of dreams. Their work focuses on found materials processed through spontaneous and formal means into stand-alone objects and sites. Works take the form of interactive location-specific interventions. Sculptural elements co-habit with drawings, prints, and large swaths of colour. Their means of working often delves into obsessive-making co-existing with collaboration, temporal process developments and community engagement
Artist
Percy Mailmela
Bring Light
Medium
Charcoal and acrylic on canvas
Size
78 x 78 cm (unframed)
Year
2026
Price
R35 000
About the Artist
Percy Maimela (1985) is a self-taught artist born in Pretoria, South Africa.
He is currently working at August House studios in Johannesburg. Maimela discovered his love for art during his early childhood.
In 2014 while working as a sales assistant, Maimela decided to pursue art as his part-time business making portraits for commissions. He then became a full-time practitioner in art in 2016 and was introduced to conceptual and investment art.
His preferred medium includes charcoal drawing, painting and some traditional art forms, but he also experiments with untraditional mediums like salt, maize meal, ashes, and coffee grounds which he holds a Guinness World Record for. This technique Maimela discovered during his retail employment in 2014.
After discovering the technique of producing art pieces with salt, Percy Maimela gained a lot of media interest leading to his work being profiled by TV shows like 100% Youth and My First, both on SABC1. Maimela’s work is mostly inspired by issues and conditions surrounding his communities and his main objective is to confront these issues and to inspire resolution.
The Mask in Maimela’s work is a universal totem that represents our past, present and future. The finger print lines are a symbol of DNA and culture we inherited from our long history before we are created. The physical form of the mask is a showcase of the presence and the aerodynamic shape is a symbol of the future, to show the possibilities that one can become how they desire to be. This mask also aims to remove us from a sense of individuality for one to know that my story is far bigger than me and my current situation.
Artist
Alpheus, Nomonde, Mongexi, Dumisani, Sihlobo & Lindelwa
By the Six
Medium
Acrylic on canvas
Size
265 x 175cm (unframed)
Year
2025
Price
R76 000
About the Artist
Created over four weeks by artists based at August House Studios, Johannesburg, this collaborative painting is a visual manifesto born from the spirit of Ubuntu and a celebration of unity, difference, and imaginative resistance to fragmentation in our social and ecological fabric. The tree, a symbol of lineage, development, and connectivity, is the main character of this work, but not as a biological form; it is an imaginary tree, grounded not only in soil but also in memory, future hope, and shared dreaming.
The branches twist up into the air, pierced by surreal interruptions to gravity and realism: a black-and-white checkered portal, floating objects, and a hazy Johannesburg skyline in the distance, which creates a feeling of metaphysical tension, or the dissonance between actuality and potentiality. In many cultures from African cosmologies to Norse mythology (Yggdrasil) the tree is a sacred symbol connecting the underworld, the earthly and the cosmic. The varied approaches, textures and brushwork showcase the diverse hands that worked on the piece, a direct metaphor for the multiplicity of cultures, identities, and histories that converge in Johannesburg.
Artist
Teboho Makoatsa
Ziyanda
Medium
Mixed medium
Size
119 x152cm (unframed)
Year
2025
Price
R50 000
About the Artist
Teboho Makoatsa emerges as a prominent figure within the South African contemporary art landscape. Born in the Free State Province and later raised in the Northwest Province, his early life was shaped by prodigious talent and a natural ability to capture the spirit, rhythms, and realities of his time.
His latest body of work, Girls on Heels, showcases a sensitivity to the subtle nuances of a young woman’s rite of passage. Through vibrant, expressive brushstrokes rich in emotion and detail, the series explores the intimate ways in which young girls observe, inherit, and reinterpret their feminine role models. Themes of modernity, empowerment, and generational transmission flow throughout the work.
Central to his practice is the elevation of everyday objects, heels, headphones, mobile phones, and travel bags, into potent symbols of contemporary life. Much like Andy Warhol transformed the mundane into cultural commentary, he recontextualizes ordinary items, inviting viewers to look beyond the surface and discover deeper meaning within the familiar.
Alongside these contemporary symbols, he remains deeply committed to painting the daily lives of African people living in villages. His work pays homage to ordinary moments, communal life, and lived experiences often overlooked, bridging rural narratives with modern realities. This dual focus gives his work both cultural depth and emotional resonance.
Well-renowned in South Africa, he continues to build strong artistic momentum. He most recently exhibited in Johannesburg in Spring 2023, following a highly successful exhibition in Abidjan, a major cultural hub in West Africa, located in Côte d’Ivoire, also known as Ivory Coast. As his practice evolves, his work speaks powerfully to shared human experiences, leaving art lovers and collectors anticipating further international exhibitions and opportunities to engage with his compelling vision.
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