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, archiving special moments of the everyday. References to music, film and literature appear frequently, depicting a proud and uninhibited generation with globalised influences.

“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.” - Aviwe Plaatjie

Plaatjie held his first solo exhibition at EBONY/CURATED in 2021, where a large-scale work was acquired by the Norval Foundation’s Homestead Collection. He has subsequently been included by EBONY/CURATED and Project 31, Paris at 1-54 London, AKAA, Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Artissima, Arco and Kiaf art fairs.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023
FNB Art Joburg, EBONY/CURATED, Johannesburg, South Africa

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

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024
EXPO Chicago, EBONY/CURATED, Chicago, United States of America
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa

2023
'A Very Loop Street Summer II', EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
‘Africa Supernova’, Museum Kade, Amersfoort, Netherlands
'Effet de Groupe', 31 Project, Paris, France

2022​
AKAA, 31 Project, Paris, France
KIAF, 31 Project, Seoul, South Korea
ARCO, 31 Project, Lisbon, Portugal
'Induku Entle Ikhiwa Ezizweni, L'éclat des ailleurs', 31 Project, Paris, France
‘A Point of Departure’, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
‘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
Artissima Art Fair, 31 Project, Turin, Italy
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, EBONY/CURATED, London, United Kingdom

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

PUBLICATIONS

2023
Africa Supernova. 2023. Kunsthal Kade, Amersfoort. ISBN 978 9 490153 38 0

COLLECTIONS

Norval Foundation Homestead Collection
First Rand Collection