Beyond the 2026 Gerard Sekoto Award: The Artistic World of Treasure Mlima.
Winner of the Absa L'Atelier 2026 Gerard Sekoto Award, South African artist Treasure Mlima is developing a distinctive practice through wood, the human figure and an ongoing investigation of identity. As he prepares for a residency in Paris in 2027, he reflects on his unconventional journey into art, the evolution of his practice and the importance of creating beyond commercial recognition.
For South African artist Treasure Mlima, the human body is more than a physical form. It is a vessel through which identity, memory, consciousness and the complexities of contemporary existence can be explored. Working primarily with wood, Mlima has developed a practice that positions the figure at the intersection of personal experience and broader social questions. His recognition as the winner of the Absa L'Atelier 2026 Gerard Sekoto Award marks an important moment in a career that has developed through experimentation, technical curiosity and an increasingly focused investigation of the human condition.
The award, which includes a three-month residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris in 2027, offers Mlima an opportunity to expand his practice beyond the familiar surroundings of his South African studio and engage with new artistic communities. Yet, beneath the excitement of international recognition lies a more personal story: that of an artist whose journey into contemporary art practice began not through a conventional fine arts trajectory, but through architectural training, an early fascination with wood and the unexpected possibilities of carving.
Speaking to Artweb Africa following his award, Mlima described the announcement as a moment of disbelief.
"Shock, mixed emotions between floating and weak knees," he recalled.
The experience reminded him of an earlier work, To Be a Man, You Have to Stand (2022), a title that acquires particular resonance when considered alongside the emotional and social expectations surrounding artistic success.
For Mlima, the recognition carries significance beyond the professional opportunities it creates.
"It validates all the work that has been put in and it eases the pressure from family on the path that I've taken," he explained.
His response reveals an aspect of artistic careers that often remains outside the celebratory narratives surrounding art awards: the personal negotiations involved in pursuing a profession whose outcomes are rarely predictable.
Mlima's relationship with art began during his high school years, when his academic interests were directed towards architecture. Visual Arts formed part of a combination of subjects that included science and technical drawing, reflecting an early interest in the relationship between creative expression, design and construction.
He subsequently completed studies in Architectural Draughting. While considering his next professional steps, he returned to making art, initially as a way of occupying his time.
It was during this period that he discovered carving.
The transition from architectural drawing to art making is significant. Although the disciplines serve different purposes, both demand an understanding of structure, spatial relationships, material properties and the relationship between an imagined form and its physical realisation.
In Mlima's practice, these concerns find expression through the carved human figure, where the materiality of wood becomes inseparable from the construction of bodily form. His emergence as a professional artist was also shaped by an encounter facilitated through social media. After deciding to share his work with a wider audience, he connected with curator and gallery owner Banthatile Molefe-Rawsoka, who recognised the potential of his practice and encouraged him to develop a small body of work.
The resulting collection sold out.
"The rest is history," Mlima remarked.
While the commercial response offered an early indication of interest in his work, his subsequent development suggests an artist increasingly concerned with the conceptual possibilities of sculpture rather than the immediate demands of the market.
Wood occupies a central position in Mlima's artistic language. His attachment to the material can be traced to childhood memories of domestic furniture during the early 2000s, when wooden objects formed a familiar part of everyday life. There is also a remarkable continuity between these early encounters and his present working environment: his studio is a converted wooden shed.
"It just keeps following me," he observed.
This relationship between material and biography offers a useful entry point into understanding his practice.
Wood is simultaneously an organic substance, a construction material and an object of cultural familiarity. It belongs to domestic architecture and furniture, but it also carries a long history within sculpture and craft traditions. For Mlima, its appeal lies partly in its adaptability.
"Wood offers more as it can sit as a canvas to painters, and a building material to sculptures or whatever any discipline requires of it."
His description resists confining wood to a single artistic category. Instead, he approaches the material as a versatile medium whose possibilities extend across disciplines.
His interest in the material also raises broader questions about the relationship between art making and the everyday. Wood is familiar because it surrounds us, yet carving transforms it from a functional substance into a vehicle for philosophical and social inquiry. The ordinary becomes a means of investigating the extraordinary complexity of human existence.
Central to Mlima's work is the human figure. When asked why the figure remains so important, Mlima described the body as an immediately recognisable means of communication.
"It's an important/powerful vessel, it allows for relatability at the simplest form. Politically too, it holds a special place as it stands in for consciousness."
This understanding of the body moves his work beyond representation. The figure becomes a conceptual instrument: a means of considering how individuals understand themselves, how society constructs expectations around identity and how lived experiences become embedded in human consciousness.
Mlima describes his central investigation as being concerned with how people perceive themselves through their bodies within social systems, and how those experiences are subsequently processed.
His interest is not limited to documenting the human condition. He also sees artistic practice as a means of generating dialogue.
"The core idea is to create healthy dialogues to question what is necessary for the growth and balance."
This emphasis on dialogue gives his sculptures a social dimension. The body is both individual and collective. It carries personal experience while remaining accessible to audiences whose histories and circumstances may differ from those of the artist. In this sense, Mlima's sculptural figures operate between autobiography and universality, using the recognisable human form to open questions that extend beyond any single identity.
The development of Mlima's practice can be traced through three exhibition projects: The Search for a Face (2023), Hueman Experience (2025) and Reflections (2026), the latter presented at kumalo | turpin.
Considered together, their titles suggest a conceptual progression from the search for identity, through the complexities of lived experience, towards an increasingly reflective engagement with personal and artistic development.
Mlima himself understands these exhibitions as interconnected stages of a continuing investigation.
"I searched for who I was/am, had (still having) the experience in it's many colours and now I reflect on the journey and my career."
This progression is particularly revealing because it does not present identity as a fixed condition. Instead, identity emerges as something continually negotiated through experience, changing circumstances and the passage of time.
Mlima's work has reached audiences beyond South Africa through exhibitions in Israel and South Korea, while also entering collections including that of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. These developments position his practice within the growing international circulation of contemporary African art. Yet, when asked about the relationship between institutional recognition, collecting and commercial success, Mlima returned to the importance of artistic development.
"My focus has been about the craft/work, how I can improve technically and continue to elevate the storytelling and processing of the daily life experience."
His response offers an alternative to the tendency to measure artistic achievement primarily through sales, exhibitions and collecting milestones. While such markers remain important within the contemporary art ecosystem, Mlima regards them as consequences of sustained engagement with the work itself. He describes the relationships that emerge through artistic practice as a "beautiful ripple effect", acknowledging the role played by curators, collectors and other professionals who recognise and support an artist's vision.
However, he is equally conscious of the need to protect the integrity of that vision.
"I have learnt the importance of protecting my art by working with people that want you to grow beyond the economics."
For emerging and mid-career artists navigating increasingly interconnected art markets, commercial visibility can create opportunities while also introducing pressures to reproduce successful forms or respond to market expectations. Mlima's emphasis on long-term development suggests an awareness that artistic sustainability requires more than immediate financial success. It depends on relationships that support experimentation, technical growth and the continued development of an independent artistic voice. As he puts it, artists must remember "the bigger picture, the role of art in society."
The 2027 residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris represents a new phase in Mlima's development. For an artist accustomed to working in relative isolation, the prospect of entering an international community of artists offers both an opportunity and a challenge.
"I'm used to being alone and my work carries that seclusion," he explained.
His expectations for Paris extend beyond the acquisition of new technical skills. He speaks of entering an unfamiliar environment, experiencing cultural exchange and discovering how his practice might develop within a different creative system. Particularly striking is his description of the residency as an opportunity to be physically present in a new space while representing his lineage. This introduces another dimension to the relationship between artistic identity and international mobility. The residency is not simply a professional opportunity. It also represents an encounter between personal history, cultural inheritance and new artistic contexts.
Technically, Mlima hopes to investigate printmaking processes following an introduction to printing techniques during a visit to Artist Proof Studio as part of the award finalists' programme. He is interested in how these processes might become additional layers within his existing carving practice.
He also intends to explore further sculptural possibilities using wood. Conceptually, his ambition is to continue developing narratives of universality while responding to the unfamiliar circumstances of his new environment.
For an artist whose work has repeatedly returned to questions of identity, place and human experience, the prospect of working in Paris may offer new ways of testing those ideas.
This feature is based on an interview conducted by Artweb Africa with Treasure Mlima following his recognition as the 2026 Absa L'Ateleir Gerard Sekoto Award winner.
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