Reflecting on Women’s Month and the art market over the past couple of years, one thing is certain: women artists are not just part of the conversation; they are now driving it. Women artists are increasingly reshaping the global art market, both at the top end and through a widening mid-market base.
In 2023, auction turnover for artworks by women surpassed $1.3 billion, maintaining billion-dollar momentum for a third consecutive year, while early 2024 saw more women represented among the world’s top-selling artists than ever before. Record-breaking sales, such as South African-born Marlene Dumas’ Miss January (1997), which achieved $13.6 million in May 2025 – the highest price ever paid for a living woman artist, underscore just how dramatically the ceiling has shifted and remind us that women are rewriting the story of the art market.
Yet just as important, is the surge in demand for works priced below $1 million, where volumes have more than doubled over the past five years. This dual dynamic, where headline records are accompanied by a deep, sustained collector appetite, reflects how women are redefining both taste and value across the market. From the rediscovery of 20th-century surrealists to the near-parity achieved among today’s ultra-contemporary generation, their market share is expanding with real momentum.
Notably, women artists are now also leading in African sales, accounting for over half the turnover in 2024. Together, these shifts signal not only a long-overdue correction but also a powerful growth frontier in global collecting.
Aspire Art has proudly been part of this shift, championing female talent and working to ensure their voices and visions are given the platform they deserve. From the outset, the company have made a deliberate effort to highlight the contributions of women artists, going so far as to ensure that every one of their catalogues features an artwork by a woman artist on its cover. Marelize van Zyl, chief executive officer (CEO) and senior art specialist, says: “We recognise that while progress has been made, the work is far from complete, and it is this awareness that drives our commitment to nurturing and promoting women artists across generations”
Aspire’s upcoming live auction of Modern and Contemporary Art highlights this commitment with Blood Fortune (2019) by rising star Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, which graces the cover of the catalogue. This marks the first time a major painting by the Botswana-born artist will be offered at auction in South Africa. The work featured prominently in All My Seven Faces, Sunstrum’s career-defining survey exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati in 2019, which was accompanied by her first monograph. Estimated at R450 000 to 650 000, the painting arrives at auction fresh from the success of her recent solo exhibitions: It Will End in Tears at The Curve, Barbican Centre, London, and The Gods and the Underdogs at KM21 in The Hague in 2024.
Alongside Sunstrum, the sale brings together an extraordinary roster of women artists whose work demonstrates the breadth of female vision. Their practices reveal a particular sensitivity, not only in subject matter but also in the treatment of media, where nuance, texture, and gesture often carry layers of meaning. Yet this sensitivity is paired with a striking strength: one that confronts, subverts, and redefines the narratives historically attached to women.
Georgina Gratrix, whose exuberant, impastoed portraits push beyond prettiness into satire, playfully yet powerfully interrogate the very conventions of portraiture. Zanele Muholi’s piercing self-representations challenge histories of marginalisation while asserting presence and identity with commanding force. In a different register, Mia Chaplin’s gestural canvases use paint’s tactility to explore intimacy and vulnerability, while Esther Mahlangu continues her globally celebrated practice of adapting traditional Ndebele forms to assert cultural pride and continuity on a contemporary stage.
Other highlights include Jane Alexander’s unsettling yet deeply human figures, Penny Siopis’ layered, psychological explorations of memory and history, and Mary Sibande’s theatrical staged portraits that confront and rewrite legacies of servitude through bold, imaginative transformation. And, of course, the inimitable Irma Stern – without whom no South African auction would be complete – whose pioneering vision continues to command attention and inspire new generations.
Auction details
The live Modern and Contemporary Art auction is taking place in Johannesburg on Wednesday, 17 September, in person and streaming live from Aspire’s gallery and auction room in the Trumpet Building, 21 Keyes Avenue, Rosebank.
Auction preview
Items can be viewed and inspected until Wednesday, 17 September. The artworks can viewed on Mondays to Fridays from 08:30 to 16:30, and on Saturdays from 10:00 to 14:00.
Venue
Aspire Art’s gallery and auction room is located at the Trumpet Building, 21 Keyes Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg.
For more information, send an email to jhb@aspireart.net or contact +27 10 109 7989.
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