(B.1981, South Africa) The hand-coiled terracotta sculptures of Siyabonga Fani draw inspiration from charred trees, rivers, and the voluptuous bodies of women. Fani is leading a new generation of smoke-fired ceramic practice in South Africa.
(B.1964, South Africa) Nicholas Sithole is one of Africa’s most pioneering ceramic artists; a master of technique and an early innovator of traditional forms. His radical sculptures have inspired countless generations of ceramic artists in South Africa.
(B.1979, South Africa) The monumental, hand-built ceramic sculptures of Martine Jackson resemble ancient, weathered landscapes with their undulating forms and textured surfaces.
(B.1981, South Africa) Sbonelo Luthuli’s innovation does not lie in abandoning tradition, but in working within its constraints — stretching, testing, and gently disrupting a long artistic heritage of cosmological Zulu vessels.
(B.1984, South Africa) Ludwe Mgoolombane’s process includes mixing clay with any organic combustible materials, such as leaves, straw and pine needles that burn away, leaving a grassy, gritty textural finish highlighted using oxides.
(B.1965, South Africa) A pioneering ceramic artist — one of the country’s first to experiment with installation art through clay — Hennie Meyer builds bodies of work with 400 grams of earthenware. Beyond that, the scope extends anywhere.
(B.1969, South Africa) Hailing from one of the foremost families of Zulu ceramics, Jabulile Nala bears the memory of a line of female clay-workers that can be traced back to 1900; extending and re-inventing the work of her late mother, Nesta Nala.
South Africa is home to some of the leading ceramic artists in the world — many of them unrecognised and unrecorded. This is, in part, because an understanding of ceramic technique and history is required to understand what these artists are doing and why it is significant. Our aim, through much of the literature published by Art Formes, is to bring understanding of the complex medium and history of clay to general audiences — so that, in time, recognition will come to our ceramic masters. The works can be appreciated for their beauty alone, but they hold a different beauty and meaning when they can be fully comprehended in their technical innovation and historical relevance.
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