A Selection of Works from The Georgina Jaffee Collection
Hair Matters is a tightly focused, thematic auction that initiates a critical dialogue on the profound significance of hair in contemporary artistic practice. Featuring a cohort of accomplished contemporary artists, primarily those working from the African continent or within the global African diaspora, This selection of works is guided by a singular conceptual mandate: every work turns to hair as a powerful nexus, serving as medium, metaphor, or focal point of exploration.
Hair Matters illuminates the diverse interpretations and artistic vocabularies through which hair shapes identity, memory, and meaning across cultures, nations, and histories. Featuring artists such as Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou (Benin), Ifeoma U. Anyaeji (Nigeria), SethembileMsezane (South Africa), and Hank Willis Thomas (United States), the auction examines the aesthetics, politics, and sociology of hair, with particular emphasis on African perspectives and the connective threads that link the continent and its global diasporas.
Hair Matters: A Selection of Works from The Georgina Jaffee Collection will go under the hammer at Strauss & Co on Saturday, 21 February 2026. Auction preview opens at Strauss & Co Cape Town from 26 January 2026
Visit hair-matters.org to learn more.
Teresa Kutala Firmino, Discontinued Healing
“Hair has always mattered to me. Having my own frizzy hair and keeping it long, it was always a self-identifier, with people often commenting on and recognising me through it. My father would tell me to brush it, tie it up and control it. Walking the streets of Woodstock in Cape Town, with my frizz blowing in the wind, a young man with wild hair also being battered uncontrollably in the gale, called out to me in recognition of something shared” – Georgina Jaffee
EVENTS
Creator | Collector | Curator Walkabout
Saturday, 6 December 2025 from 10:30am – 1pm
Fikile Magadlela, Portrait of a Man with Foliage Emerging from His Crown
Franck Kemkeng Noah, Le Kounga au Vatican (The Kounga at the Vatican)
Raïssa Karama Rwizibuka, From the Series Our Hair is Beautiful
About
Hair Matters
Hair Matters is a collection of artworks in which hair is either a prominent visual feature, the central subject, an artistic medium, or a representational device. Initiated by Georgina Jaffee, the collection has a strong emphasis on African artists, reflecting her South African base. Yet, because hair functions as a powerful and often politicised marker of identity across cultures, the collection also includes artists from the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands, Chile, and China.
Selections were guided by each work’s relevance to the collection’s focus and by the evolving conversations that emerged between them. The result is an eclectic, content-driven collection that brings together works by both prominent global artists and local emerging creators..
