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.
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.
The monumental, hand-built ceramic sculptures of Martine Jackson resemble ancient, weathered landscapes with their undulating forms and textured surfaces.
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.
Junior’s work is largely inspired by historical sculpture from the Renaissance period, art history, diverse indigenous ceramic traditions and biblical, mythological themes – all of which are integrated, re-interpreted and transformed into work that is specifically his own, anchored in questions around memory and African identity.
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.
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.
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.
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