Fibre & Form: Celebrating Africa’s Vibrant Woven Traditions

A quiet revolution is unfolding in African material culture. It is tactile. It is sculptural. It is deeply rooted in communal memory. And it takes centre stage in Fibre & Form, the refreshed evolution of the Woven Legacies auction presented by Strauss & Co.

More than an auction, Fibre & Form is a deliberate re-framing of how Africa’s woven and sculptural traditions are understood. It celebrates the continent’s vibrant fibre practices alongside finely crafted personal objects, while inviting viewers to reconsider Western notions of individuality that often overlook the communal eco-social foundations from which these works arise.

A Renewed Appreciation for Tactile Arts

In recent years, African material culture has been rediscovered for its extraordinary technical skill, symbolic depth and aesthetic refinement. What was once narrowly categorised or undervalued is now recognised as conceptually sophisticated and culturally profound.

A powerful convergence of scholarship, connoisseurship and market interest has elevated fibre-based and traditional sculptural practices into sharper global focus. Demand continues to grow for works that embody centuries of accumulated knowledge, technique and meaning — objects that are not merely decorative, but carriers of memory, identity and innovation.

Tradition in Conversation with the Contemporary

A strong contemporary thread runs throughout the sale, firmly rooted in long-standing traditions.

Works from Frances van Hasselt Studio, including the significant piece Radio Sonder Grense, continue the momentum of last year’s success. These hand-woven compositions explore landscape, materiality and ecological awareness with quiet authority.

Leila Walter’s natural-fibre works offer contemplative restraint, using texture and subtle tonal shifts to evoke both interior and environmental stillness.

The contemporary textile dialogue expands further through Sett & Beat’s large-scale Children of the Same Sun, which echoes traditional West African strip-weaves while advancing a socially engaged fibre practice.

Rural craft initiatives are equally central to the narrative. Works from Mogalakwena Craft Art Development Foundation, Tintsaba, and Mapula highlight the vital contribution of community-driven fibre arts across Southern Africa.

Amy Rusch’s use of synthetic materials introduces a pointed commentary on waste and geological time, encouraging a slowed, reflective encounter. Meanwhile, Patrick Bongoy’s sculptural works in recycled rubber extend the material conversation into environmental territory.

Historic Textiles as Living Influence

Selective historic textiles provide a vital counterpoint to contemporary practice.

A focused group of Mbuti barkcloth, Kuba velvets and Ewe prestige cloths appear not as ethnographic artefacts, but as works whose abstraction, geometry and surface intelligence continue to inspire makers today. Their presence affirms that innovation in African fibre has always existed — long before global recognition followed.

Where Fibre Links to Form

The exhibition’s narrative extends seamlessly from woven surfaces into sculptural form.

Finely crafted personal objects include nineteenth-century wirework on Zulu snuff gourds and a Zulu wire-bound prestige club. The category expands further with a rare nineteenth-century figurative pipe, bone snuff spoons, prestige staffs and notable carved works.

Of particular importance are the published Zulu headrests from the Bruce Goodall Collection, admired for their sculptural balance and architectural clarity — objects that blur the line between functionality and art.

Contemporary sculptural contributions include Walter Oltmann’s evocative Ferox and a nature-inspired couch from the Casamento studio, reinforcing the continuum between fibre and form.

Africa at the Forefront of Material Innovation

Woven Legacies: Fibre & Form 2026 positions Africa’s fibre artists and makers as leading voices in contemporary material culture. It affirms that textile and tactile expression — whether woven, embroidered, coiled, carved or sculpted — remains among the most dynamic and innovative fields in African art today.

The sale is on view at Strauss & Co in Cape Town and online.
The auction closes at one-minute intervals from 2pm on 24 February 2026.

Venue:
Strauss & Co
2nd Floor, Brickfield Canvas
35 Brickfield Road
Woodstock, Cape Town

Website: www.straussart.co.za

In Fibre & Form, the past is not preserved — it is activated. And in the hands of Africa’s fibre artists and makers, material becomes memory, structure becomes story, and tradition becomes tomorrow.