2025 Award Winner
Smiso Cele
Announcement of the 2025 Cassirer Welz Award Winner
We are delighted to announce the winner of the Cassirer Welz Award 2025 to Smiso Cele, who has been awarded a 3-month artists residency at Bag Factory Artists’ Studios, culminating in a solo exhibition.
To further celebrate the longevity of the Award as well as Strauss & Co’s commitment, Bag Factory Artists’ Studios, hosted an exhibition celebrating the creative path of the winners to date with a group exhibition opening on 30th August, titled Trajectories.
In 2025 the Award is made possible with the ongoing support of Strauss & Co and additionally funded by the French Institute of South Africa.
“For the French Institute of South Africa, supporting the 15th edition of the Cassirer Welz Award reflects our wider mission to nurture cultural exchange and creative talent. The award aligns with our own goal to provide emerging African artists with a platform for mentorship, growth, and meaningful engagement with the wider industry,” said Dorine Lebreton, cultural attaché and deputy director.
About the Award
Strauss & Co in association with Bag Factory Artists’ Studios announced the winner of the prestigious Cassirer Welz Art Prize 2025 at Art Club in Johannesburg on Monday, 18 August. With a talk by Strauss & Co’s Richard “Specs” Ndimande, former winner of the prize.
Through its enduring partnership with Strauss & Co, the Cassirer Welz Award has been instrumental in launching the careers of its recipients, helping them gain recognition in the South African art market. As the award celebrates over a decade of excellence, Bag Factory Artists’ Studios and Strauss Education continue their commitment to fostering emerging talent.
About Smiso Cele
Smiso Cele (b. Port Shepstone, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) is a Johannesburg-based visual artist. Cele’s practice is concerned with the ecological questions surrounding migration, gardening, city construction/urban planning, and language. These are often engaged with through diagrammatic drawings and object-based sculptures. He is the 2025 Cassirer Welz Award Winner. He has also exhibited, with notable participation in Shifting Grounds (2025) at Ellis House Gallery, AFFECT/EFFECT (2024) at the UJ FADA Gallery, and Of Place and the Uncertain (2024) at Constitutional Hill. He has also participated in residencies at The Bag Factory Artists’ Studios (Young&Unframed), Kromdraai Impact Hub at Nirox Foundation, and at Ellis House (2025).
PREVIOUS WINNERS
2024
Tawanda Takura
2023
Bulumko Mbete
2022
Mpumelelo Buthelezi
2020
Levy Pooe
2019
Duduzile (Dudubloom) More
2018
Olivia Botha
2017
Richard ‘Specs’ Ndimande
2016
Nompumelelo Ngoma
2015
Keneilwe Mokoena
2014
Thato Nhlapo
2013
Asanda Kupa
2012
Blessing Ngobeni
2011
Tshepo Mosopa
ABOUT THE CASSIRER WELZ AWARD
“Since its inception, this award has helped the winners launch their careers and start
making a name for themselves. It recognises artistic excellence, encouraging creative
practice, and providing the supportive space and presentation platforms required by
emerging artists. This award is an important part of Strauss & Co.’s ongoing and
substantial commitment to young talent in southern Africa and on the continent – and is
a powerful example of the company’s investment in the art of the future.”
– Susie Goodman, Executive Director, Strauss & Co.
In its fourteenth year, the Cassirer Welz Award’s focus has always been on recognising artistic excellence, encouraging creative practice, and providing the supportive spaces and presentation platforms required by emerging artists.
The award acknowledges excellence in emerging artists specialising in sculpture, drawing and painting, and provides an opportunity to showcase their talents to a broader audience. The winner receives a ten-week residency at the Bag Factory, culminating in a solo exhibition of newly created work at a leading commercial art gallery or the Bag Factory Gallery. Through the exchange of ideas, mentorship and skills development, the artist has an opportunity for substantial creative and professional growth.
The Cassirer Welz Award was originally founded as the Reinhold Cassirer in 2011 by Nadine Gordimer, one of South Africa’s most celebrated authors and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, to celebrate the life and work of her late husband Reinhold Cassirer, a renowned collector and dealer. In 1968, Cassirer founded Sotheby’s, South Africa. When he retired in 1980 to pursue other interests, Stephan Welz, his key protégé, inherited the mantle.
After more than 26 years as the head of Stephan Welz & Co, Welz sold the company and founded Strauss & Co in 2009 with prominent figures from the business world, Mrs Elisabeth Bradley and Dr Conrad Strauss. Strauss & Co has since become the largest fine art auction house in South Africa. After Gordimer’s passing in 2014, Strauss & Co. pledged its support to the award – a partnership that has continued to this day. Sadly, Stephan Welz passed away in 2015. In 2016 the Reinhold Cassirer Award was renamed the Cassirer Welz Award, as a fitting tribute to the two men who had contributed so much to the South African art world.