Call for applications

Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2026

Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town , South Africa
Deadline: 26 September 2026

Courtesy of

Courtesy of

Investec Cape Town Art Fair hosts its 13th edition from 20 — 22 February 2026. Investec Cape Town Art Fair is Africa’s largest and leading international art fair, bringing together a diverse group of celebrated exhibitors, including prominent galleries from around the world, to showcase contemporary art. It has proven to be an intimate platform for discovery, innovation and cross-cultural exchange, where the fast-growing African art market and the international art world meet. It is a place for collectors, galleries, curators, artists, art professionals and art lovers from around the world to create connections in the heart of Cape Town.

The 2026 edition of the fair is composed of 3 core sections (Main, Lookout and Editions), 4 curated sections (Tomorrows/Today, SOLO, Generations and Cabinet/) and the debut of a special project, Performance. This is bolstered by a dynamic line-up of guided art walks, a thought-provoking talks programme, and the return of our much-loved VIP programme and Unbound City public programme.

The curatorial concept for the 2026 edition of the Investec Cape Town Art Fair is Listen. In a world saturated with noise, urgency and individualistic self-expression, listening is an increasingly radical act. Listen, in contrast to seeing, invites us to slow down, recalibrate our attention and forge deeper connections. Listen is not passive. It is an active, embodied, ethical gesture. Listen is an invitation: to pause, to create space, to hold complexity, to tune in to what lies beneath the surface. It calls us to notice what is usually unheard: the silences, the murmurs, the voices too often drowned out or disregarded.

For Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2026, Listen emerges as both a curatorial proposition and a sensorial framework, explored through sound, silence, resonance, resistance and the myriad ways in which artists invite us to hear differently: to reckon, to feel, to understand, to heal. More than a theme, Listen is a mode of engagement and a way of being with art, with one another, and with the moment. It asks artists to reflect on what it means to be heard. It challenges curators to assemble sections that cultivate attention and presence. It encourages visitors to participate sensitively in meaning-making. Listen also reconnects us to the material and immaterial textures of art – to its rhythms, vibrations and echoes – and to the narratives that emerge when we choose to truly, deeply, listen.

Investec Cape Town Art Fair has appointed the following curators: Tomorrows/Today, Dr. Mariella Franzoni (Barcelona, Spain); SOLO, Céline Seror (Amsterdam, Netherlands); Generations, Tandazani Dhlakama (Toronto, Canada); Cabinet/, Beata America (Cape Town, South Africa).

Applications for Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2026 are now open!

Application deadline: Friday 26 September 2025

Application fee: R3,000.00 (+15% VAT)

Acceptance or Non-Acceptance Notice: October 2025

 

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