Cape Town’s HUB Gallery is currently hosting a two-month exhibition featuring 60 compelling portraits selected from the Portrait 100 Award 2025 finalists
Running from 30 August to 29 October, the show offers audiences a rich and diverse experience of contemporary South African portraiture. The Portrait Award, a biennial national competition presented by Rust-en-Vrede Gallery in Durbanville since 2013, has become one of the country’s most respected platforms for representational art, celebrating technical excellence, emotional depth, and narrative strength. From hundreds of entries, the top 100 portraits were selected, with the Top 40 exhibited at Rust-en-Vrede and the remaining 60 on view at HUB Gallery. All works are available for purchase. This year’s finalists were chosen through a blind adjudication process by Dr Dineke Orton, Thonton Kubeya, and Sean O’Toole, ensuring that each piece was judged solely on artistic merit.
The HUB Gallery exhibition is part of a broader artist development ecosystem led by Spier Arts Trust (SAT), a nonprofit organisation working in partnership with Spier Wine Farm, Hollard, and Nando’s. SAT supports career-building initiatives such as the Creative Block and regularly curates exhibitions at venues including HUB Gallery (on the ground floor of Union House in Cape Town’s CBD), Sisonke Gallery at the Cape Heritage Hotel, and the Old Wine Cellar at Spier Wine Farm. HUB itself is a SAT programme designed to empower professional fine artists not affiliated with galleries, offering them opportunities to exhibit, sell, and collaborate across disciplines. Its services include site-specific commissions and partnerships with artisans from affiliate studios like HUB Mosaic Studio, Keiskamma Arts Project, and Qaqambile Bead Studio, many of which are also based at Union House.
As the exhibition nears its close, it continues to draw attention for its emotional resonance and technical brilliance, affirming the Portrait 100 Award’s role in spotlighting South Africa’s finest portrait artists. HUB Gallery remains a vital space for emerging and established talent, bridging the gap between artists and audiences through curated excellence and shared cultural value.
