Nando’s first ever in-restaurant pop-up gallery in Nando’s Soho was designed as a playful immersive experience, in which visitors could have fun and get chatting while experiencing an up close and personal connection to artworks by some of the brightest stars in Southern Africa!
Feast Your Eyes was open to the public and visitors were invited to put on VR headsets that transported them into the artists studios back in South Africa, giving them an authentic and direct connection to the lives and stories of the seven Southern African artists who have participated in one or more of Nando’s artist-career development programmes. With guest appearances from the artists themselves, some very special panelists, and - of course - plenty of PERi-PERi, we’re still buzzing from the events!
A quick visit? Transport yourself to Feast Your Eyes and experience it for yourself here!
Nando’s Artists Society is structured to give 20 invited members the life-changing freedom to focus full-time on their artistic career, and the structure to explore and expand their creative practice, knowing that this gives them the potential to earn a decent and regular living from their creative work. Each selected member is a mid-career artist living in Southern Africa and emerging in a local and/or international context. On a set date each month NAS artists meet representatives of Yellowwoods Art. Each artist brings along their own most recent experimental work – created on NAS canvases supplied to artists as part of the programme for which artists are paid a set fee depending on the size of the canvas. There’s more to this programme, and we were humbled when it was recently honoured with a Silver Loerie for ‘doing good while doing business’.
Got a minute? Meet Nando’s Artists Society members in a quick video, and read the full story here.
Take a picture of your artwork.
​We will contact you via email to let you know if your application is HOT OR NOT.
The Creative Block provides a platform for Southern African artists, both established and emerging, to have their work exhibited across the globe. Artists are provided with blank blocks of various sizes, to be transformed in any media. Artworks are then submitted for critique and the best are purchased for resale to corporate patrons and the general public. Each block is unique, signed and individually numbered.
There are more than 250 contributing artists from Southern Africa. Each block represents the work of an artist, their unique story and technical style. The impact of the Creative Block is really felt when these individual artworks come together to become a larger, collective work of art.
Every month, our curators tour artist's studios across South Africa, scouting for hot-off-the-brush contemporary works to add to our collection. This programme allows artists to focus full-time on their careers, whilst also offering valuable critique that builds skills and confidence.
During these visits, offers are made on-the-spot to buy artworks or entire collections, and artists are paid in full that same day. We then ship these pieces to our restaurants across the world, were they are proudly displayed.
To help artists focus on their arts full-time, 20 mid-career artists from the Creative Block were chosen to submit larger artworks to Nando's on a regular basis, at a set fee per canvass. We receive affordable, quality artworks for our restaurants and the artists gain financial security. It's a beautiful mutual exchange.
The Nando's Artists Society programme has been contributing to artists and art patron collection development for 10 years; offering artists an opportunity to experiment while earning a steady income, and meeting nando's global demand for quality fine art at best value for money.
Specialising in collaborative and experimental work with fine artists, designers and architects in conceptualising, manufacturing and installing architectural artworks. Training in ceramic and mosaic mediums, artists are offered a 3-year paid apprenticeship.
What started as a simple idea – to collaborate and interpret the work of some of South Africa’s finest artists in beaded panels - has grown to become an inspiring, unique art expression. Today, Qubeka Bead Studio collaborates with some of our country’s leading artists to translate their works into beautiful beaded creations.