Andile Dyalvane is one of Africa’s foremost ceramic artists. Guided by a deep spiritual connection to his Xhosa ancestors, his complex, large-scale ceramic artworks are a metaphorical vessel through which he seeks to honour his cultural traditions and share his journey of healing.

Born in 1978 in the small village of Ngobozana, near Qobo-Qobo in the rural Eastern Cape province of South Africa, Dyalvane grew up farming and looking after his father’s cattle herd – sewing a deep connection to the land and his Xhosa culture that resonates powerfully through his work today. His medium of clay or “umhlaba” (mother earth) is, at its most fundamental, a life-affirming connection to the soil. But by providing a medium for storytelling, it is also an essential energetic link to his past, present and future.

Dyalvane completed a National Diploma in Art and Design at Sivuyile Technical College in Gugulethu, Cape Town, followed by a National Diploma in Ceramic Design from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in 2003. In 2005, he and Zizipho Poswa co-founded Imiso Ceramics, whose handmade tableware and vessels have earned the studio an international following. Through his functional designs for Imiso, he developed a language of incision marks inspired by the African tradition of body scarification that continues to inform his work today.

Dyalvane’s ouevre for Southern Guild serves as a distinct, but aligned, space from which to explore more complex ideas in greater depth with a focus on sculptural and monumental qualities. He made his international solo debut with Camagu, a ground-breaking collection of over-scaled ceramic vessels, lighting and furniture at New York gallery Friedman Benda in 2016. The exhibition’s title is a Xhosa term expressing gratitude, spoken in particular when acknowledging one’s ancestors, and it has become a much-used mantra for the artist.

Dyalvane’s work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pérez Museum, Design Museum Gent, Vitra Design Museum, New Taipei City Yingge Ceramic Museum, Iziko South African National Gallery, NMMU Art Museum in Port Elizabeth, and the Corobrik Ceramics Collection.

The artist has exhibited at museums all over the world, including the National Art Museum of China, Seoul Museum of Craft Art, Vitra Design Museum and Iziko South African National Gallery. He has taken part in number of biennales including the inaugural Indian Ocean Triennial in Perth, New Taipei City Yingge Ceramic Museum Biennale, Tel Aviv Biennale of Crafts and Design, and Jinju Traditional Crafts Biennale.

He is the recipient of multiple recognitions, including the 2015 Design Foundation Icon Award and a Special Mention as a finalist in the 2022 LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2021
iThongo, Friedman Benda, New York, USA

2020
iThongo, Southern Guild, Cape Town, South Africa
Selected Works from the Leach Pottery Residency, Southern Guild, CapeTown, South Africa

2019
Our Cultures in Constant Collaboration, Leach Pottery, St. Ives, UK

2017
Idladla, Southern Guild, Cape Town, South Africa

2016
Camagu, Friedman Benda, New York, USA

SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024
Compressing Materiality, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
Mother Tongues, Southern Guild, Los Angeles, USA

2023
Tel Aviv Biennale of Crafts & Design, MUZA Eretz Israel Museum, Israel
Mirror Mirror: Reflections on Design at Chatsworth, Friedman Benda, Chatsworth House, UK

2022
Uyalezo – Song of the Desert River, Kwasukasukela Arts Collective, Stonehenge Private Reserve, Tankwa Artscape Residency

LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize Finalist Exhibition, Seoul Museum of Art, Republic of Korea

2021
Jinju Traditional Crafts Biennale, Republic of Korea
Indian Ocean Craft Triennial, Western Australia
Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room, Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York, USA (ongoing)

2020 What Would Have Been, Friedman Benda, New York, USA
Solace, Southern Guild, Cape Town, South Africa
Closer, Still, Southern Guild, Cape Town, South Africa

2019
Communion, Southern Guild, Cape Town, South Africa
Mess – Expressionism and Experimentation in Contemporary Ceramics,
Future Perfect, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, USA
Iidonga Collection, Feature Designer of the Year, 100% Design South Africa

2016
Gebak, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa

2015
Homecoming, Southern Guild, Cape Town, South Africa
Christie’s Design Auction, London, UK

2014
Central Saint Martin University of Art, London, UK
Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany
Terra Nova, New Taipei City Yingge Ceramic Museum Biennale, Taiwan
D-Street Gallery Exhibition, Western Cape, South Africa

2013
The Craft of Ubuntu: An Exploration of Collaboration through Making, Iziko Heritage Museum, Cape Town, South Africa
Southern Guild 2013 Collection, Museum of African Design, Johannesburg, South Africa
Heavy Metal, Southern Guild, Cape Town, South Africa

2012
Long Table 101 Place Settings and Retrospective, Iziko Heritage Museum, Cape Town, South Africa
ReCollect, Southern Guild Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Southern Guild 2012 Collection, Johannesburg, South Africa
Everyday Discoveries: Tradition Reinterpreted, International Design House, Helsinki, Finland
South African Pavilion, Royal Festival Hall, London, UK
KKNK Festival Exhibition, Oudtshoorn, South Africa

2011
Conversations, AMARIDIAN Gallery, New York, USA

2009
Brotherhood, RED BLACK & WHITE Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2006
Picasso and Africa, Iziko Museum, Cape Town, South Africa

2003
Solo Exhibition, UCT Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, South Africa

RESIDENCIES
2024 Cerámica Suro, Guadalajara, Mexico
2023 Academy of Ceramics Gmunden /Gmundner Keramik, Austria
2022 Tankwa Artscape Residency, South Africa
2019 Artist-in-Residence, Leach Pottery Studio, St. Ives, UK
Summer Workshop Programme, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Maine,
USA
Clay Adventures with Andile Dyalvane, Master Class Touring Series,
South Africa
2018 Clay Gulgong, Clay Festival Ceramics Master Demonstrations & Lecture,
Australia
2015 Artist-in-Residence, Palo Alto Art Center, California, USA
2014 New Taipei City Yingge Ceramic Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
COLLECTIONS
Design Museum Gent, Belgium
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
Pérez Art Museum Miami
Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany
Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
New Taipei City Yingge Ceramic Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
Collection or HRH Franz, Duke of Bavaria

PUBLICATIONS
2024 Ubunzululwazi Lwabaphantsi (Ancestral Wisdom), published by Almas Art
Foundation
Africanfuturism: African Imaginings of other Times, Spaces, and Worlds, Dr Kimberly Cleveland, published by Ohio University Press
2023 Clay Formes, Olivia Barrell (ed.), published by Art Formes
“The Scale of Tomorrow: Imiso Ceramics in Context”, Dr. Elizabeth
Perrill, Ceramics Monthly
2020 iThongo (exhibition catalogue), published by Southern Guild
“Self/Other/Clay/Skin: Reflections on Ceramics by Andile Dyalvane,
Juliet Armstrong, and Kim Bagley”, Kim Bagley, de art, Volume 55, Issue 2,
2020
2019 Communion, published by Southern Guild and BMW South Africa
2018 “Skipping the Blockade Run: Andile Dyalvane and Camagu”, Dr.
Elizabeth Perrill, Critical Interventions: Journal of African Art History and
Visual Culture, Volume 12, Issue 1, 2018
2017 Idladla (exhibition catalogue), published by Southern Guild
2016 Camagu (exhibition catalogue), published by Friedman Benda

SELECT PRESS

2023 “The artisans who embrace the beauty of decay”, Financial Times
“9 Furniture Designers From Across the African Diaspora”, The New York Times
2022 “11 International Makers Blurring the Line Between Art and Furniture”, Architectural Digest
“The Ancestral Alphabet”, TLmagazine
“South African designers and ceramicists anchor their work in heritage and craftsmanship”, Daily Maverick
“Celebrated Ceramicist Cements SA at the Forefront of Contemporary Craft”, Wanted Online
2021 “A Panorama of Design”, The New York Times
“Meet the ceramic innovators firing up an age-old craft”, The New York Times
“Casa Sagrados”, Casa Vogue
“Beyond Words”, Craft Magazine
“Andile Dyalvane draws on Xhosa heritage for iThongo seating collection”, Dezeen
“Andile Dyalvane honours Xhosa culture in clay”, Wallpaper*
“Andile Dyalvane Translates His Dreams into Ceremonial Objects”, Whitewall
“Andile Dyalvane’s Meditations in Clay: Form Emerging From Dreams,
Interrogations, and a Deep Reverence”, ArtFormes
“Homecoming: Ceramic artist Andile Dyalvane comes full circle”, Daily
Maverick
“The Shape of Things”, Departures
“Andile Dyalvane in Conversation with Li Edelkoort”, Art Times
2020 “Design in Dialogue #80: Andile Dyalvane”, Friedman Benda
“Andile Dyalvane on ancestry, community and his sculptural ceramic seating”
designboom
2019 “Andile Dyalvane”, House & Garden, UK
2017 “These 20 Artists Are Shaping the Future of Ceramics”, Artsy