Cape Town based artist, painter and printmaker, Aviwe Plaatjie has been drawn to the visual arts since childhood. His obvious talent as a child was nurtured by his mother and her employer who took him to part-time art classes. In 2010, Aviwe joined Good Hope Arts Studios as a self-taught painter and later attended a mentorship programme at VANSA for three months, where he was introduced to linocut printing.

An avid commentator on his community through his identity-based paintings, his characters, friends, neighbours and family are staged onto an often aspirational and imaginary background. Subjects might appear ‘dressed up’ but these often simple garments appear sumptuous in the artist’s expertly malleable hands. His use of colour, texture and luxuriant attention to detail incorporating abstract backgrounds and patterns attend to his ability to weave a strong visual narrative.

“I work mainly with oil paints on canvas or anything that is a drawing-based medium. I like the way you can record an instant observation or doodle away your unconscious thoughts and ideas. My inspiration comes from the world around me – I love absorbing my surroundings. I simply comment on life.”

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2021
'MAKWANDE', EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2022​
‘A Point of Departure’, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, EBONY/CURATED, South Africa
‘Induku Entle Ikhiwa Ezizweni’, 31 Project, Paris, France
‘A Very Loop Street Summer’, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa

2021
African Galleries Now in Partnership with Artsy, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
In [the] Loop Group Show, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa

2020
Latitudes Art Fair, online presentation with EBONY/CURATED, Johannesburg, South Africa
FNB Art Joburg, online presentation with EBONY/CURATED, Johannesburg, South Africa
‘In The Making’, Associated for Visual Arts, Cape Town, South Africa
'Home Is Where The Art Is’, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town, South Africa

2018
Committee Choice Exhibition, Art B Gallery, Belville, Cape Town. South Africa
Greatmore Thupelo Internation Workshop Exhibition, Cape Town. South Africa



PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Norval Foundation Homestead Collection