BIC Announce Winners of ‘Art Master Africa’ Competition

Yinka Olatunbosun

BIC, a leading global stationery brand, has announced the winners of the fourth edition of Art Master Africa competition. The competition encourages talent across Africa and the Middle East to showcase their creativity and create a piece of art, using the famous BIC Ball Pen.

The winners included one continent-wide winner as well as 11 winners from countries within the Africa region. Ugandan artist Gayi Eric was named the 2021 BIC Art Master Africa champion. His portrait titled ‘Circle of Life’ was created using four BIC Ball Pens and took a total of 210 hours to complete.

Announced as a second place winner, was Kamgaing from Cameroon, who developed the art piece titled ‘In My Room’ while the Nigerian artist Odaro Franklin Osaivbie holds down the third place with his art piece ‘Entranced’.

National winners across Africa were also announced and include Badr Labied (Morocco) for the artwork ‘Enchantez la vie africaine’; Astral Msekeli (South Africa) for the artwork ‘Ubuntu’; Stanley Were (Kenya) for the artwork ‘Life is what you make it’.

Similarly, the top ten Art Masters of Africa were announced, including Andrew Nathan (Nigeria) for the art piece ‘Value’; Thuso Modikela (South Africa) for the art piece ‘Flowers of the universe’; Ashaba Gabito (Uganda) for the art piece ‘Enchant everyday life’ Brandon Ponen (South Africa) for the art piece ‘Roll the Dice; Omphile Sefako (Botswana) for the art piece ‘Liminal Confinement.’

The creative artwork was chosen from 6,350 entries submitted by more than 3,700 artists from 52 countries across the Middle East and Africa. The work was shortlisted by a panel of judges including experts from BIC, renowned artists from the region, winners from previous Art Master Africa competitions, and art experts from Europe.

The first place winner received a cash prize of USD 2000, and will have their piece showcased at an online personalized gallery as well as at Le Collection BIC – the company’s official contemporary art collection and exhibition. Second and third place winners have received a cash prize of USD 1000 and USD 500 respectively.

Commenting on the occasion, Peter Van den Broeck, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Middle East and Africa said: “We are proud of the impact that the Art Master Africa competition has had on talent in the region to date. BIC has a longstanding history with art, and the inception of the Art Master Africa competition has allowed us to support thousands of talent across the region. With the competition expanding into the Middle East this year, we are confident that we will continue to motivate and shine a bright light on talent across the region creating a future generation of creative and inspiring individuals.”

The BIC Art Master competition, is an annual event that began in 2017 in South Africa. Following its success, the competition expanded to include the Africa region in 2019. This year, the competition expanded even further to include the Middle East, reaching more than 3,700 artists.