Lesotho-born queer artist, lawyer, and researcher Thato Toeba has been named the winner of the 2025 FNB Art Prize, one of Africa’s most prestigious contemporary art accolades. The announcement was made at FNB Art Joburg, the continent’s longest-running art fair, which is celebrating its 18th year.
The prize affirms FNB Art Joburg’s mandate to grow and sustain Africa’s cultural landscape while spotlighting artists whose work challenges, inspires, and reshapes narratives.
Faye Mfikwe, FNB Chief Marketing Officer, congratulated Toeba:
“We congratulate Thato Toeba on winning the coveted 2025 FNB Art Prize. We believe that art leads change by playing a crucial role in cultural expression, innovation, borderless connection, shared prosperity, and economic growth.”
A queer voice at the centre
For Toeba, who identifies as queer and has worked at the intersections of law, research, and art, this recognition is not only personal but also political.
“This is a landmark moment in my young art practice. At 30 I abandoned a PhD in law to focus on making art. To win this award affirms this decision and quells all the doubts and insecurities that came with making such a pivot,” Toeba told MambaOnline.
The artist added that their win is also about visibility for artists from Southern Africa, and particularly those working from historically marginalised spaces:
“Coming from Lesotho, this award also affirms our efforts there to build an ecosystem for contemporary art to live and thrive. For Southern African artists, the award is a call and response. Many of our artists have paved the way in illuminating the world to the sensibilities, brilliance and talents of our people. The time is ripe for Southern Africa to take its rightful place as thought leaders in the world and this is one of the ways we get there.”
Law, justice, and queer life through art
Toeba’s practice is rooted in their background in law, blending legal reasoning with visual storytelling through mixed-media photomontage and assemblage.
“My work begins with law. Law is how I am intellectually oriented and how I judge the world. I wanted to use legal techniques of making arguments and compelling others but through images, which operate like language,” they explained.
“By removing images from their original context, mutilating them and deploying them to a new context, I would intervene in our view and acceptance of the ‘normal.’ These ‘new contexts’ are then the arguments which intervene in our consciousness of reality. My art journey has been this attempt to practice law through art and vice versa.”
Themes of politics, identity, and the everyday experience, often shaped by structures of power and queerness, are central to their work.
Identity as a lens
Their art is deeply personal, shaped by cultural heritage and queer identity.
“When making art, I feel like I am pouring out what is within me. My cultural and personal identity are entry points to my relationship with the world, how I understand the world and how the world sees me. So, these two things are very central.”
Toeba hopes audiences connect with their work in ways that are both intimate and collective:
“In engaging with the work, I hope to connect, to see what of my personal is actually public. Images allow us to meet at a collective memory. I wish people can relate while having their own interpretation. Just like music. Music brings us closer to our own experiences… In a way I hope the work reads like songs.”
Looking forward
As part of the FNB Art Prize, Toeba will present a solo exhibition at the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 2025, alongside showcasing with Stevenson Gallery at FNB Art Joburg.
Toeba’s win is both a personal triumph and another step forward for queer African visibility in contemporary art, positioning voices from Lesotho and Southern Africa at the centre of global cultural conversations.
