Tamsanqa “Thami” Kiti was born in 1968, Mtebhele village in the Machibini district in Lady Frere. He has lived in Crossroads and Khayelitsha since his early youth.

In the late 1980s and 90s, he attended Community Arts Project (CAP) at St Philips in Woodstock, and took classes in carving, drawing, painting and print making under Mario Sickle, Lionel Davis, Lucy Alexander, Lovell Friedman, Ricky Dyaloi and Sipho Hlati.

Working primarily as a carver, Thami Kiti has had his work included on various exhibitions including: ‘Thami Kiti and Wanini Hill’ at the UCT Irma Stern Museum in 1995 curated by Christopher Peter and Jane Alexander; ‘Engaging the Shadows’, Robben Island, 1997; ‘Homecoming’, Gug’Sthebe, Langa, 2001; ‘Against the Grain’, 2013, Iziko South African National Gallery curated by Mario Pissarra; ‘my whole body changed into something else’, Stevenson gallery, 2021 curated by Sisipho Ngodwana and Sinazo Chiya; and ‘Seeds of the Fig’ an exhibition curated by Reservoir in collaboration with Whatiftheworld for Krone in Tulbach, 2023. In 2024, his work was exhibited in Europe for the first time on Fallow Ground, in Uckermark, and Chapter One: Vernacular Materiality in Berlin, group exhibitions curated by Reservoir.

In 1996, Thami Kiti participated in the Thapong International Artists Workshop in Gaborone as well as a number of workshops in Cape Town and Pretoria. He worked for the Handspring Puppet Company from 2008-2011 and has produced a number of his own unique articulated and puppet animals. In 2017, he was the winner of the Craft Award for his carved initiation staffs selected for the Innibos Laeveld Nasionale Kunstefees in Mbombela. He was commissioned to create a large temporary public sculpture, a mosaic hybrid figure of a bride, Umakhoti, for an outdoor exhibition, ‘Reflections’, in Stellenbosch in 2015; a staff with a leopard, Ingwe Izidla Ngamabala, for the University of Cape Town Vice-Chancellor’s annual Award for Transformation in 2019; and a carved broom with a bird as part of Jane Alexander’s installation Infirmary, 2014, 2019. He has artwork in the Robben Island Collection, the collection of William Humphreys Art Gallery in Kimberley, the Community Arts Project Collection at the University of the Western Cape, and numerous private collections.

Thami Kiti’s works make direct reference to Xhosa custom and ritual, particularly birth, initiation, marriage and death in relation to the earth and a sustainable environment. Figures are sometimes hybrid forms, and usually include animal figures that hold particular significance such as inqaqa (civet) and inganda (serval). His most recent work consists of carved and decorated staffs with mounted animal figures that often refer to initiation, and individual animals composed of multiple types of wood, “puzzle” carvings made of a variety of found wood, some with elaborate inlay.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2025
‘Terrain’, EBONY/CURATED, Franschhoek, South Africa

‘Chapter One: Vernacular Materiality’, curated by RESERVOIR in collaboration with PSM Gallery, Berlin, Germany


2024
‘Fallow Ground’, curated by RESERVOIR, in collaboration with PSM Gallery, Spaced Out, Gut Kerkow, Uckermark, Germany
‘Vital Signs’, curated by Fritha Langerman and Svea Josephy, Michaelis Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

‘iSenzo Sak’dala, indlela ibuzwa kwaba ohambili’, RESERVOIR in collaboration with FEDE, Cape Town, South Africa


2023
‘Seeds of the Fig’, curated by RESERVOIR in collaboration with Whatiftheworld for Krone, Twee Jonge Gezellen Farm, Tulbach, South Africa

2021
‘my whole body changed into something else’, curated by Sisipho Ngodwana and Sinazo Chiya, Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa

2017
‘Dream now, dream not’, The Cape Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa


2014
‘Pause’, The Cape Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa


2013
‘Against the Grain’, curated by Mario Pissarra, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa


2012
‘Siyakubona’, The Cape Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

‘Turn Around Time’, The Cape Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa


2011
Annual wildlife exhibition, The Cape Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

‘Continuum’, The Cape Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa


2005
‘Encompass’, Cape Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa


2001
‘Homecoming’, Gug’Sthebe, Langa, South Africa


1997
‘Engaging the Shadows’, Robben Island Museum, Robben Island, South Africa


1995
‘Thami Kiti and Wanini Hill’, curated by Christopher Peter and Jane Alexander, UCT Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, South Africa


1994
‘The Loft’, Cape Town, South Africa
Idasa Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
‘Wood panels’, Association for Visual Arts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

1992
‘Made in Wood: work from the Western Cape’, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

1991
‘Sculptors of the Western Cape’, organised by Andrew Steyn and Mario Sickle, Stellenbosch; Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

1990
‘Ricky Dyaloyi, Billy Mandindi, Wanini Hill, Thami Kiti Group Show’, Joseph Stone, Athlone, South Africa
‘Vuyisane Mgijima, Timothy Mafenuka and Xolile Mtakatya, Thami Kiti Group Show’, Cape of Good Hope Castle, Cape Town, South Africa

c1986–1993
Annual Exhibitions, Community Arts Project, Cape Town, South Africa

COLLLECTIONS

Robben Island Collection, South Africa

William Humphreys Art Gallery, South Africa

Community Arts Project Collection, University of the Western Cape, South Africa

Numerous private collections in South Africa, United States and Europe, including the Ronnie Levitan Estate, South Africa

PUBLICATIONS

2024
Jane Alexander. Infirmary, Erf 81 (Cape of Good Hope). Alexander, J., Njami, S., Lalu, P., Josephy, S., Saptouw, F., and Nankin, J. Cape Town: Stevenson.

2021
my whole body changed into something else. Exhibition catalogue. Chiya, S., Ngodwana, S. https://issuu.com/stevensonctandjhb/docs/my_whole_body_catalogue_issuu

2014
The constraints of ahistoricism in the ‘ opening ’ of the Community Arts Project archive at the Centre for Humanities Research. Pissarra, Mario.
https://www.academia.edu/98977702/Uncontained_The_constraints_of_ahistoricism_in_the_opening_of_the_Co mmunity_Arts_Project_archive_at_the_Centre_for_Humanities_Research

2013
Against the Grain. Exhibition catalogue. Pissara, M. Cape Town: Africa South Arts Initiative (ASAI).

ONLINE PUBLICATIONS


Africa South Art Initiative
https://asai.co.za/artist/thami-kiti/

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/thami_kiti?igsh=MXVsaDFxNzBjOTEzbA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
https://www.instagram.com/p/CR6jHyTJUaq/?img_index=1
https://www.instagram.com/_reservoir_/?hl=en https://www.instagram.com/fede_arthouse/?hl=en

Art & Artist Files in the Smithsonian Libraries Collections
https://sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/art-design/artandartistfiles/vf_details.cfm?id=1522

Robben Island Collection
https://www.chrflagship.uwc.ac.za/media/galleries/swedish-anti-apartheid-poster-collection/

ArtThrob, Against the Grain exhibition
http://artthrob.co.za/Artists/Thami-Kiti.aspx

Ibali Digital Collections, UCT
https://ibali.uct.ac.za/s/cap/item/49738#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-1173%2C-192%2C7662%2C3824

The Cape Gallery, Thansanqua (Thami) Eddie Kitty [sic]
https://www.capegallery.co.za/thami_kitti_cv.htm#

The Art Times, Against the Grain
https://issuu.com/arttimes/docs/sa_art_times_november_2013/38

Reflections of Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch Outdoor Sculptures
https://www.timetravelturtle.com/south-africa/stellenbosch-art/

National Craft Competition, Innibos Festival
https://www.iloveza.com/blogs/news/national-craft-competition-held-under-auspices-of-innibos-festival

Thamsanqa Kiti, Stevenson gallery
https://www.facebook.com/Stevenson.Gallery/posts/pfbid0vJqfTC6UtyBJ9iCFs3t9qVHvPp86bWAhzDjwDo3r8vWhT3ZdCKYqtco3mGL pJgxSl/?locale=sw_KE

Thami Kiti, Viewing room, Stevenson
https://viewingroom.stevenson.info/content/feature/1113/10049/

Catalogue: my whole body changed into something else
https://issuu.com/stevensonctandjhb/docs/my_whole_body_catalogue_issuu

Seeds of the Fig exhibition, Krone, Tullbagh
https://www.whatiftheworld.com/exhibition/seeds-of-the-fig/

Seeds of the Fig exhibition, Krone, Tullbagh
https://www.instagram.com/_reservoir_/p/CmgI27VqbjN/?hl=zh-cn&ref=159&img_index=5