Sanlam Private Investments, in collaboration with Rust-en-Vrede Art Gallery, Durbanville, has initiated South Africa's first National Portrait Award. A significant single prize of R100,000 will be awarded for the best portrait. In addition to the prize, the winning portrait along with a selection of approximately 40 entrant works will be exhibited at the Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, after which the exhibition will tour to venues around South Africa in collaboration with the Sanlam Art Collection and VISI magazine. Artists are challenged to enter works which exemplify their ability in the medium of their choice, excl.uding lens-based media . More here

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Times Live: NASHIRA DAVIDS: South Africa's got talent - behind bars.The Department of Correctional Services this week opened the first gallery for prisoner art in the country, the Gallery of Arts and Hope, in Cape Town, and plans to open similar spaces in other cities and towns. Inmates from the 283 correctional facilities in the country were invited to submit artwork for the opening of the gallery. Officials whittled these down to 54 submissions, which will go on sale to the public. The funds will be used to expand the project.
Andile Nelani, the department's co-ordinator for Source

Die Burger: Die afgelope ses dekades het Erik Laubscher ’n onmisbare rol in Suid-Afrikaanse kuns gespeel – as skilder, vernuwer, leier, dosent en administrateur. Met waagmoed en durf het hy ná sy studiejare in Londen en Parys die plaaslike kunstoneel uit sy konserwatisme en koloniale tradisies geruk – dikwels met veel omstredenheid – om die ná-oorlogse strominge te akkommodeer.Source

inquisitr: In Mexico, ancient cave art was unearthed revealing nearly 5,000 paintings. The rock art was discovered in several different locations throughout Tamaulipas’ Sierra de San Carlos mountain range. Archaeologists previously assumed the area was ninhabited in prehistoric times. The paintings have given them new insight into several ancient cultures.As reported by NBC News, the natives left behind few clues of their existence. The paintings are the first sign that several different cultures actually thrived in the Tamaulipas mountains. Source

BBC: Small surveillance drones are already widely used, like this one in Israel Germany's national railway company, Deutsche Bahn, plans to test small drones to try to reduce the amount of graffiti being sprayed on its property.The idea is to use airborne infra-red cameras to collect evidence, which could then be used to prosecute vandals who deface property at night. .Graffiti is reported to cost Deutsche Bahn about 7.6m euros (£6.5m; $10m) a year.German media report that each drone will cost about 60,000 euros and fly almost silently, up to 150m (495ft) above ground. Source

NY Times: Jackson Pollock’s unconventional working methods — spreading a piece of unstretched, unprimed canvas on the floor of his Long Island studio and then pouring, splattering and literally flinging industrial paints across its surface — have long been part of his myth, performance art executed without an audience.
A Mystery Buried Deep in a Canvas“On the floor I am more at ease,” he once wrote. “I feel nearer, more part of the painting since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting.”During his lifetime Pollock was famously photographed creating these seminal works, . Source