When I found my way to the Artists’ Press last year, there was a forest fire raging dangerously close to this sleek, yet casual studio tucked in the rolling hills of Mpumalanga, South Africa. Despite flames visible just a few miles away, the charming Mark and Tamar calmly showed me around their space, where they just happened to be doing a special print commission for William Kentridge, an impossibly complicated replica of torn layers and ink washes. As we moved from table to table, drawer to drawer, Tamar pulled out endless treasures — prints and artist’s proofs from the likes of Claudette Schreuders and Dumisani Mabaso, as well as the incredible emerging artists that the Artists’ Press represents — that I began to run out of new ways to ‘oooh’ and ‘ahhh’ over the works they shared.

I left the Press fighting the urge to ‘rescue’ Mark, Tamar, their adorable children, and the amazing repository of art they possess from the fire that was even closer than when I arrived. (The assured me they’d be fine, and they were.) Ever since, I’ve been dreaming about buying up dozens of prints, but unfortunately, my art budget hasn’t exactly been where I’d like it to be recently.

Until now?

It seems it’s true what they say: when America sneezes, the world gets a cold. So while the much-discussed economic crisis is sitting heavily on America, it’s settling in even thicker on the many nations who tie their economies so closely to theirs. So perhaps now is a great time to show those nations some support by forgetting the stock market and treating yourself to a real investment — in your art portfolio.

The Artists’ Press is an ideal first stop to broaden your artistic horizons or find a great gift for the artie on your holiday shopping list. And, with the exchange rate currently hovering around ten rand to one American dollar (where last year’s average was between six and seven rand per dollar), there are bargains to be had, even when you factor in shipping and insurance, which, of course, Mark will happily to arrange for you.

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There’s a lot I could say about South African artist Robin Rhode.  But to simply say that he’s endlessly cool pretty much sums it up. In fact, he’s so cool that Nike’s been accused of ripping off one of his pieces for a television ad (can you say plagiarism: just don’t do it?) His photographs and performance art feel a bit like the intersection of comics and graffiti, often suggesting motion through a series of street-based stills or by borrowing from the graphic language of comic books (think a looping arc to suggest a bouncing ball’s trajectory). And yet, Rhode’s deceptively simple representations, low-brow materials, and neutral urban settings camouflage careful staging and precise execution. So while it’s largely Rhode’s sense of humor that makes his work so appealing, that humor belies a technical sophistication and composition that’s incredibly beautiful. Smart, funny, and good looking? I think I have a crush.

You too can start sentences, ‘I had a farm in Africa …’ Zenkaya, an innovative architecture firm based in Johannesburg, is bringing modern design and the ease of pre-fab construction to South Africa. French architect Eric Bigot claims that his company’s studio, one and two bedroom models can go from the factory to the building site in just five to twelve weeks. It may not be the thatch-roofed Africa of Karen Blixen’s coffee plantations, but it just could be the future. [see also the Prefab houses of architectural firm Brio 54]

Esopus only hits newsstands twice a year, but take a peek inside and you’ll understand why. With a CD of new music in each issue, specialty papers, and a hand-crafted feel, this ad-free magazine of writing and artwork strives to create a place for ‘unfiltered’ and ‘unmediated creativity’. Yes, please! There’s a part of us that wants to give each new issue the white glove treatment (move the coffee cup away, try not to crack the spine), while the other half wants to rip out pages and frame them for the wall. [read also about the Magazineer, a blog about magazine design and print culture]

What do you call a group of men, a little girl, three hyenas, four monkeys, and a few rock pythons? Well, apparently, Gadawan Kura. South Africa-based photographer Pieter Hugo first heard about the group (whose name means hyena handers) from a friend who’d taken a photograph of them with a camera phone on a trip to Lagos, Nigeria. The image stayed with him (understandably) and so he tracked down this mysterious group — a modern-day, wandering circus — photographing them first in 2005 and then again in 2007. The result is a haunting series of portraits as regal and dramatic as they are odd and disturbing. In one photo, a man proudly straddles a chained and muzzled hyena; in another, a young girl lies across the hyena’s back as a man shows off its fangs. It’s quite frankly the most unusual wild-urban hybrid I’ve have ever seen.

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Since graduating from art school a year ago, Mikhael Subotzky has taken his native South Africa and the international art world by storm. The twenty-five-year-old has exhibited across his native country, in the Netherlands and Italy, and has even been invited to join Magnum Photo Agency — one of the youngest photographers to be inducted into the venerable photo institution’s ranks. So what’s all the hype about? Subotzky is the real deal, part of the next generation of South African artists who are picking up where their apartheid predecessors left off, tackling the issues of a modern country in transition. From prison conditions to strongholds of racism, Subotzky treats South Africa as the work in progress that it is and somehow helps others find beauty in its imperfections.