Artist Proof Studio's curation for FNB Art Joburg brings together 35 years of printmaking through works that speak to different moments in the Studio's history. Selected works from the archive sit alongside recent editions and large-scale prints, connecting artists who have worked with APS over decades with a younger generation developing their practices today.
Throughout 2026, APS has revisited its history through exhibitions and programmes in Johannesburg and KwaZulu-Natal. Each has opened a different part of the archive and created an opportunity to consider what has changed since the Studio was founded in 1991. At FNB Art Joburg, these threads come together, not as a retrospective, but as a look at what 35 years of accumulated knowledge makes possible now.
When Print Takes Up Space
At the centre of the curation are works that challenge the idea of printmaking as a medium defined by modest scale. William Kentridge's captivating etchings, Bambo Sibiya's monumental print and Sizwe Khoza's large-scale work each approach this differently, through technique, material and the physical demands of producing work at this size.
Scale in printmaking is not simply a matter of making an image bigger. Plates, blocks, paper and individual layers have to be prepared and registered with precision. A process that may already involve several stages becomes increasingly demanding as the dimensions of the work grow.
Bambo Sibiya's work takes another route, using linocut and embossing to work with both the printed image and the surface of the paper. The scale gives the marks and carved lines a physical presence that is difficult to understand from an image on a screen. These works demonstrate that there is no single route to producing an ambitious print. Each begins with the artist's practice, with the final edition carrying both the artist's hand and the technical decisions required to realise it.
From Plate to Edition
William Kentridge's second Family Portrait offers a closer look at what happens before an edition is ready to leave the Studio.
It is part of what makes collecting an original fine art print very different from buying a reproduction. The collector receives a work produced through the artist's chosen printmaking process, developed with specialist printers and belonging to a defined edition.
This relationship between artist and printer has been central to APS since its beginnings. Technical knowledge is accumulated through practice, but it is also passed between printers, assistants, students and artists. New projects put that knowledge under pressure, requiring different solutions and sometimes combinations of processes that have not been attempted in quite the same way before.
35 Years, Different Generations
The curation also moves across generations, placing artists with long histories at APS alongside alumni and younger artists whose careers are still developing.
Works by artists including Jason Langa and Lebohang Motaung sit within the same curation as artists whose relationships with APS extend much further back. For collectors, this creates an interesting way into the Studio's 35-year history. A collection can begin with an emerging artist; grow through an alumnus whose practice is developing or include an edition by an artist whose relationship with APS stretches back decades.
Many of these artists first encountered the studio through education before moving into professional practice, exhibitions and collaborations with the Professional Print Studio. Others arrived as established artists looking to extend their practices through print. The works available through APS therefore represent very different points within an artist's career and offer equally varied points of entry into collecting.
At FNB Art Joburg, collectors will encounter these histories side by side, from significant archival and large-scale works to editions by a younger generation of artists. For those unable to attend the fair, selected editions from the curation will also be available to view online.
We look forward to seeing you at Booth INK6 at FNB Art Joburg, from 4 to 6 September 2026. Come spend some time with the works and artists that form part of our 35-year story. Get your tickets and join us at the fair.