BE OPEN Art congratulates the winners of the Regional Art Competition in Southern Africa

LUGANO, Switzerland, Jan. 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- BE OPEN Art, an online art gallery set up by BE OPEN think tank, a humanitarian initiative founded by Austria-based international businessperson and philanthropist Elena Baturina, is ready to announce the results of the last stage of BE OPEN Regional Art in 2024 which covered the countries of Southern Africa: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

BE OPEN Regional Art is a region-based competition for emerging artists, aimed to support those whose art best represents their regional, cultural and ethnic identities. Throughout 2023 and 2024, BE OPEN expert community have been selecting artists to feature them in the BE OPEN Art gallery, offer greater visibility and encourage the public to vote and thus select the monthly and the regional winners. The winner of each regional stage receives a money grant from the foundation.

In October, Akissi Beukman was voted the Artist of the Month. Akissi is an artist based in Pretoria, South Africa. She specializes in performance art, experimental sound art and painting. She received her degree in Fine Arts with honours from Rhodes University in 2018.

Akissi Beukman's work is influenced by the notion of performativity, with a keen focus on how gender, race, and the surrounding political landscapes interact with and shape her body. Through her art, she communicates themes of spiritual healing through the transformative power of artistic expression. Akissi also became the Founders' personal favourite in the region of Southern Africa.

In November, the title was given to Aislinn Finnegan, a self-described "mixed media artist of mixed-race heritage." Aislinn's illustrations focus on concepts of race, identity, and femininity in an attempt to disseminate and celebrate aspects of black culture and beauty in a world dominated by "Western" concepts and aesthetics.

Natasha Mwila, a digital artist from Lusaka, Zambia, became the regional artist of December.  The digital mobile phone artist draws on her African heritage to create powerful collage art. Her work explores the social and political complexities of life, with a focus on amplifying marginalized voices, particularly women. Natasha's art serves as both a tribute to women's empowerment and a call for more inclusive, equitable societies.

Based on the general amount of votes, Aislinn Finnegan becomes the Artist of the Region for Southern Africa, and will now be awarded with a €500 grant.

In 2025, the competition will start in South Asia to discover emerging artists from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. An important development in the programme is that the artist that receives the Founder's recognition will also be awarded a money prize. "We hope that these additional resources will support our emerging artists in their continued pursuit of a successful career in the arts," said Elena Baturina. "We want to empower artists to keep dreaming, to keep creating, and to keep following their hearts".

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