Lecturer’s winning artwork explores the shifting nature of memory

Mellaney Roberts, lecturer in the Department of Fine and Studio Arts, TUT Faculty of Arts and Design, is the proud winner of the RDC Art Collection Award (also known as the RDC Acquisition Prize).

Mellaney Roberts, lecturer in the Department of Fine and Studio Arts. This prestigious annual prize was presented as part of the recent Investec Cape Town Art Fair by the RDC Property Group.

The award recognises an artist whose work aligns with the group's values of sustainability, community and innovation, offering them acquisition of their work and a platform to exhibit in prominent landmark buildings within RDC’s portfolio. 

The award was made for Roberts’ artwork, Echoes in the Reeds, a mixed media installation inspired by her childhood home becoming increasingly empty, leaving echoes of the past, lived experiences and deeply rooted identity.

This work forms part of a travelling exhibition, Waar bloed nie loop nie, alongside two other works, Nestlings: The inheritance, and The Ancestor. In 2025, she presented this exhibition – her first solo show – at Berman Contemporary, the gallery that represents her.

Roberts, who is a celebrated ceramic artist, says Echoes in the Reeds focuses on the notion of fragmented memories and identity through what we remember and forget.

“The artwork embodies a personal memory. The work further explores the shifting nature of memory; how one drifts in and out, feeling a sense of void. Echoes in the Reeds displays a rhythmic arrangement between handmade clay reeds symbolising personal memory and perspex rods that symbolise the lost memories that remain present in the absence. The copper tubes also play an important role in creating moments of memory that surface unexpectedly in the mind's archive. The chosen materials create a spatial narrative that mirrors the internal terrain of remembering and forgetting,” Roberts adds.

Asked what this recognition means to her, Roberts says: “This is a collective win with the community that I grew up with in Baviaanskloof in the Karoo and reinforces a sense of identity. So, it's not just for me, but it's also about taking it back to my community, showing them the appreciation and the hard work that went into excavating their memories, identity and what land means to us.”⁠

Roberts was also shortlisted for the inaugural Materiality Prize, presented at the end of the fair in partnership with the Michelangelo Foundation and Homo Faber.

Roberts’ work has been exhibited at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair (2025), Ceramics Brussels Art Fair in Belgium (2024) and the Turbine Art Fair and RMB Latitudes. Since 2023, she has participated in various group exhibitions at Berman Contemporary. Her ceramic sculptures are housed in the collections of the Spier Arts Trust, Art Bank of South Africa, Corobrik Collection and the University of Pretoria.

In 2025, she also participated in the Art/Educator Residency at the University of Education Weingarten, Germany.

She has received numerous accolades, including the 2024 & 2025 Certificate of Artistic Merit from the La Pinacothèque Museum of Luxembourg and a Top 21 finalist position in the 2024 Henrike Grohs Art Award. She was also the 2017 recipient of the prestigious Nina Hole Memorial Residency at the Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Centre in Denmark.

• The Investec Cape Town Art Fair is the largest and leading international art fair on the African continent, bringing together a diverse group of celebrated exhibitors, including prominent galleries from around the world, to present contemporary art.

The 13^th edition took place from 20 – 22 February 2026 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) and marked the fair’s most ambitious edition to date. The fair featured 126 exhibitors from 34 global cities, showcasing the work of over 490 artists, including 42 exhibitors making their debut and welcoming 30 000 visitors and 10 000 VIPs.

Echoes in the Reeds, a mixed media installation, won Roberts the RDC Art Collection Award. Nestlings: The Inheritance: a 3.7m x 90cm wall installation made from beer-fired earthenware, sand, gold leaf and fibre. It is also part of the exhibition, Waar bloed nie loop nie.

A 2m x 2m installation made of earthenware, glaze, oxide and fibre, called The Ancestor, is part of the exhibition, Waar bloed nie loop nie.