Collection: Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2026

Carried By The Plate, curated in response to the Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2026 theme Listen, marks a special moment for Artist Proof Studio as it celebrates its 35th anniversary. This year signals an important milestone for APS, honouring three and a half decades of leadership in printmaking and access-driven arts education in South Africa.

Founded in 1991 during the country’s transition to democracy, APS was established as an open-access centre grounded in equality, opportunity and social justice. Over 35 years, the studio has trained more than 400 artists, many excluded from formal tertiary education, equipping them with professional printmaking skills, mentorship and sustainable career pathways. Its graduates continue to shape South Africa’s cultural landscape as artists, educators and community leaders.

The anniversary launches a three-year travelling exhibition programme across all nine provinces, sharing the voices and work of APS alumni while reflecting on the organisation’s social and educational impact.

The year is anchored by a “Re-Birthday” on 9 March, commemorating the 2003 fire that claimed co-founder Nhlanhla Xaba, the reopening of the studio in 2004, and its continued growth in Houghton.

Within this context of reflection and renewal, Carried By The Plate draws on the language of printmaking, pressure, repetition and trace. A print begins in silence, under the weight of the press and the pull of the plate, leaving impressions that endure.

Listening becomes both theme and method, reflecting APS’s long-standing commitment to dialogue, community and the collective act of making that has carried the studio for 35 years.