Collagist Thato Toeba who abandoned pursuing a PHD in law to pursue art practice that won the FNB Art Prize for 2025

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor

When we heard that this year, the award ceremony was going to take place at this building with so much history tied to Johannesburg’s art evolution, we were triggered into a sense of anticipation. Personally, I have been invited to two or so events on previous occasions, and so it was not for the first time that I laid my eyes on this huge mansion whose history is tied in Johannesburg and its art like no other building standing today in the city of Gold.

But each time one visits this monument it felt as if one is visiting the place for the first time. And so Tuesday, August 5, 2025, was not different. We were therefore looking forward to who this year was going to be declared the winner of the FNB Art Joburg as we were at gazing at this historic building in Johannesburg suburbia. And here is the brief history about Florence Phillips and the beginnings of Parktown.

After living in the brash new town of Johannesburg for only three years (in Noord Street), Lionel and Florence Phillips had had enough of the ceaseless dust and noise of the town. Lionel had recently been elected President of the Chamber of Mines and this would mean entertaining the great and glamorous of the day: a new home was essential. On one of her frequent horse-back rides to the ridge to the north of the town, she found in a “wild and solitary” place the site for this her new home – to be named, as her house in Noord Street had been – “Hohenheim”, or “Home on High”: much more appropriate here on what was to become known as Parktown Ridge, on the site of the present Johannesburg Hospital. And just to add, Lionel Phillips is the one who donated the building that today is a home to the Johannesburg Aert Gallery in the CBD, where the winner will have a solo exhibition.

It is in this context of relaxation, marveling, networking as we enjoyed food and drink that the winner of this year’s FNB Art Prize, one of the flagship initiatives within the annual FNB Art Joburg was announced, and this news was generally met with excitement in the room. Not only because collagist, Thato Toeba’s art practice was judged the best among her peers, but also the fact that her art trajectory is a story that has become tragic as it has become familiar in African societies so that when an artist overcomes such challenges of art being regarded as not something serious in black families, it affirms not only the winner but other art lovers, collectors and enthusiasts that yet another stereotype is being undermined. And that is that art is not a career, such as being a teacher, accountant, doctor of lawyer.

And speaking about law, Thato actually left a promising career in law to take a path that at first honestly speaking, must have felt like taking a wrong turn in life, whose financial prospects are not generally regarded as certain by a society long acclimatized to the idea that really work resides in the realm of the so called professions, and not art, regarded as an abstract concept at best, and foolishness at worst by society.

But there we were to applaud and acknowledge Thato’s artistry, her ability to put together objects that seem ordinary, meaningless to an untrained eye, into something that does not only tell her personal story, but a story that has universal appeal. A story that tells society that let the talented be. Let them practice whatever they wish to, the love of their heart. Yes, at first it may not look like a decision that all of us understand is a way of earning a living in a world that increasingly is becoming capitalistic and materialistic, but at the end there is fulfilment of the soul, the heart and even financially.

“I hope that winning this prize, my family have forgiven me for leaving law and a PHD to pursue art,” Thato who is an artist signed to Steveson said. The Amsterdam based collagist has arrived indeed on the big stage of the art world.

After all, previous winners of this award, such as Lindokuhle Sobekwa, Kudzanai Chiurai, Portia Zvavahere and Oswald Denis (soon to be appointed professor of Practice at UJ), were told by the Managing Director of FNB Art Joburg, Mandla Sibeko, have gone on to do amazing things with their art practices. The team behind the award are understandably excited about their new art find, and they have this to say.

“As Africa’s leading and longest running contemporary art fair, FNB Art Joburg is proud to announce the winner of the 2025 FNB Art Prize: Thato Toeba. Now in its 18th year, FNB Art Joburg’s mandate is to sustainably support and grow the continent’s cultural offering in ways that go beyond the fair. One of the ways this is achieved is through the annual FNB Art Prize.

The 2025 FNB Art Prize jury is made up of Kim Kandan (fair manager, FNB Art Joburg representative), Kenneth Montague (collector, doctor and director of the WEDGE Collection one of Canada’s largest, privately owned contemporary art collections) and Janine Gaëlle Dieudji (curator of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art).

On their decision, the jury for the 2025 FNB Art Prize said: “Thato Toeba’s practice holds a quiet force. Their use of collage and assemblage is both deliberate and layered, allowing for a visual language that is conceptually clear and materially rich. There is a distinct sense of control in how they handle composition, texture and text, revealing a commitment to process as much as to meaning. What set Toeba apart was the clarity of vision, the formal maturity of the work and the considered pace of their trajectory. In a field of strong nominees, theirs emerged as the most resolved and coherent.”

As the recipient of the 15th FNB Art Prize, Toeba joins previous winners Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude, Lindokuhle Sobekwa, Dada Khanyisa, Wycliffe Mundopa, Lady Skollie, Bronwyn Katz, Haroon Gunn-Salie, Peju Alatise, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Turiya Magadlela, Portia Zvavahera, Nelisiwe Xaba, Mocke J van Veuren, Kudzanai Chiurai, and Cedric Nunn.

Faye Mfikwe, FNB Chief Marketing Officer, says, “We congratulate Thato Toeba on winning the coveted 2025 FNB Art Prize. Since inception in 2008, FNB’s involvement as a sponsor of FNB Art Joburg has demonstrated our commitment to being a trusted partner that empowers artists to be change agents through their artwork and the communities within which they live. We believe that art leads change by playing a crucial role in cultural expression, innovation, borderless connection, shared prosperity, and economic growth. And, in alignment with our Grassroots to Greatness sponsorship strategy, awarding the FNB Art Prize remains a way for us to showcase our commitment to supporting and growing the creative economy across the continent.”

But who is Thato?

Thato Toeba was born in 1990 in Maseru. They are an artist, lawyer and social sciences researcher working with mixed-media photomontage and assemblage.

In 2015 Toeba received an LLM from Humboldt University, Berlin and they are in the process of concluding a two-year residency at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. As a part of Stevenson’s STAGE initiative aimed at platforming younger unrepresented artists, in 2023 Toeba had their first solo exhibition titled Phate lia Lekana at Stevenson in Johannesburg.

The artist has exhibited in Today I wish to talk to your dreams, Mount Nelson, Cape Town (2023); Where Do I Begin, Stevenson, Cape Town (2022); and Propelling Otherness, Morija Museum, Maseru (2021).

“What makes Toeba’s practice stand out today is how intentional it is. In a time when quick visuals and surface-level messages are everywhere, their work takes another route,” says FNB Art Joburg’s Managing Director, Mandla Sibeko. “It is careful, considered, and honest about complexity. That is what makes it not just important, but necessary, especially now when there is so much at stake in how stories are told and who gets to tell them.”

Winner of the FNB Art Prize’s 15th iteration; Toeba’s work reminds us that art can help us see the world and ourselves differently. Using collage and assemblage, they bring together photos, textures and materials to tell layered stories about identity, power and history. Their images don’t follow one clear path. Instead, they hold many meanings at once, asking us to slow down, look closer and think more deeply about what we’re seeing.

Their practice deals with how black life is represented and misrepresented. By combining familiar and unfamiliar elements, they create images that feel both personal and political. You might notice moments of struggle sitting alongside gestures of care.

“This means a lot to me. When I started five years ago, I felt very insecure about whether I am an artist or not. This is a very affirming answer to that,” says Toeba. “Coming from Lesotho where we are still trying to build an art ecosystem; I think this is such an important and powerful affirmation of what we are doing. For my practice it is such a momentous mark of an end to my beginnings.”

As the winner of the 2025 Prize, Toeba will receive a cash prize as well as a solo exhibition at Johannesburg Art Gallery where the largest art collection, on the continent, resides, in 2026.