WORDS Jo Buitendach PHOTOS Drien Dirand/Dior; Elizabeth Carababas/Southern Guild; Hayden Phipps/Southern Guild; Thakatha Repro (Pillar IV)

Hylton Nel

Hylton Nel’s name has, without a doubt, been on every fashionista and art aficionado’s lips recently. Born in 1941, Hylton lives and works on the outskirts of Calitzdorp in the Klein Karoo. While he has long been a respected artist, it’s his most recent collaboration that has resulted in a new level of fame and “collectability”: six massive versions of the ceramicist’s iconic cats transformed the runway at the Dior Men Summer 2025 show in Paris last year. “Hylton Nel’s giant cats on the catwalk are based on ones from my collection and Hylton’s,” says Kim Jones, artistic director at Dior Men, of the collaboration. “These are the cats that spoke to me the most… they meowed to me!” Hylton is also well known for his quirky yet beautiful plates, bowls and vases. hyltonnel.co.za | stevenson.info

Zizipho Poswa

Mthatha-born, Cape Town-based Zizipho Poswa is best known for large-scale ceramic and bronze sculptures that are a bold declaration of African womanhood. Her practice reflects a personal journey that pays homage to her Xhosa culture and spiritual traditions. Her work can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago, and she has had solo shows in both New York and Los Angeles. Zizipho’s Lobi (2024) was on display at the public-art initiative Frieze Sculpture in London last year. The colossal ceramic and bronze sculpture is more than 2.5m tall, and is a reproduction of the ornate hairpin worn by the Lobi people of southwestern Burkina Faso. The clay body was made during a residency in California, where Zizipho had access to immense kilns that enabled her to scale up her work. southernguild.com | imisoceramics.co.za

Andile Dyalvane

Born in 1978 in Ngobozana, a small village in the Eastern Cape, Andile Dyalvane is indisputably one of South Africa’s leading ceramic artists. Guided by a deep spiritual connection to his Xhosa ancestors, he sees his large-scale ceramics as a metaphorical vessel through which to honour his traditions and share his journey of healing. In 2005, Andile co-founded Imiso Ceramics with Zizipho Poswa; their handmade collections of tableware and vessels have since garnered an international following. Andile latest solo show, “OoNomathotholo: Ancestral Whispers”, features a new body of work, and is his fourth exhibition with the Friedman Benda gallery in New York. southernguild.com | imisoceramics.co.za

Madoda Fani

Raised in Gugulethu township in Cape Town, Madoda Fani is known for his hand-coiled, burnished, smoke-fired pieces – a contemporary evolution of traditional Nguni ceramics. Madoda was a finalist in Loewe Foundation Craft Prize in 2022, and his work is part of the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Loewe Foundation. He has also participated in residency programmes in Argentina, France, Austria and Mexico. In August last year he took part in the 2nd Indian Ocean Craft Triennial in Western Australia, where he’s been the artist-in-residence at Denmark Arts. southernguild.com

Frances Goodman

Johannesburg-based artist Frances Goodman’s work includes installations, photography, sculptures and ceramics. She focuses primarily on women and on contemporary notions of beauty and desire, and is interested in female identity as well as the anxieties that manifest as a result of media and societal expectations. Danish gallery Specta presented two of Frances’s latest ceramic works at last year’s Frieze Sculpture in London’s Regent’s Park. Frances’s “Pillars” – Pillar IV (MF) and Pillar V (Come Undone) – are meticulously assembled and stacked ceramic structures of pills and tablets, grouped by shape, colour and size to form Jenga-like towers. According to Frances, they can “kill your pain, help you get high, calm you down, or stabilise your mind”… francesgoodman.com | frieze.com | specta.dk

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Southern Guild presents Inkundla at Design Miami 2022 – a collection of 16 handcrafted objects existing in the material plane but born of the spiritual one, featuring the likes of ceramicists Zizipho Poswa, Andile Dyalvane, and Madoda Fani; artists Nandipha Mnthambo, Porky Hefer, and Rich Mnisi; sculptor Stanislaw Trzebinski and design duo Dokter and Misses.

Inkundla derives from the Xhosa word for the entrance to a homestead’s cattle enclosure; it is a place of community, the sacred and mundane, where ideas and gripes are exchanged. The handmade objects – distinct in their materiality and form, bound by their exploration of spiritual themes and the intent of hand – visually and functionally narrate the everyday lifeworlds of objects. That is, things imbued with symbolism that elevate the everyday towards the divine.

Highlights include:

Ceramic and bronze sculptures, uBuhle boKhokho, by Zizipho Poswa that are colossal in scale and intricacy and draw inspiration from the way African women express and celebrate themselves through hair.

Andile Dyalvane’s three ceramic forms pay homage to the grounding power of nature and, specifically, the large nests of sociable weaver birds the artist spent time studying on recent travels to the plains of the Karoo desert and the Northern Cape of South Africa.

Dokter and Misses’ new hand-painted LALA Limo server brings geometric planes into conversation with an arresting energy. It is a design commemoration of the birth of the duo’s first child and speaks of tension and potential, science and nature, trauma and joy.

Rich Mnisi’s Nyoka (Snake) console and Vutlhari (Wisdom) chandelier command a tense sensuality in the booth and drew on his family history, African mythology and the duality of fear and beauty.

• The complete list of artists include:
• Adam Birch
• Andile Dyalvane
• Charles Haupt
• Cheick Diallo
• Chuma Maweni
• Conrad Hicks
• Dokter and Misses
• Galia Gluckman
• Justine Mahoney
• Madoda Fani
• Nandipha Mntambo
• NØDE
• Porky Hefer
• Rich Mnisi
• Rodney Band
• Zizipho Poswa

Design Miami will be held from 30 November to 4 December 2022. For more information, visit designmiami.com.

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Southern Guild gallery will return to Design Miami this December with an exhibition of new ceramics commissioned specially for the fair. “Studio Visit” will feature more than 60 works by leading South African ceramic artists Zizipho Poswa, Andile Dyalvane, Chuma Maweni and Madoda Fani.

Southern Guild returns to Design Miami in December 2021 with Studio Visit, an exhibition of ceramics specifically commissioned for the fair, from four of South Africa’s most accomplished artists working in clay. Encompassing both monumental pieces and smaller studies, the gallery’s presentation will include several new series and individual works by Andile Dyalvane, Zizipho Poswa, Madoda Fani and Chuma Maweni. These artists explore aspects of traditional Xhosa culture and spirituality in their work while drawing on their personal experiences and deep belief systems. All four are encountering significant global interest with recent acquisitions by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and other important foundations and collectors.

Studio Visit will present a depiction of an artist’s working space focusing entirely on ceramics, a thriving contemporary art form in South Africa and one of the continent’s great indigenous craft practices. Rising interest from museums and the public at large indicates that the world is suddenly appreciating what humans have been making since at least 9400 BC (when the oldest piece of African pottery was found in Mali).

Historically, domestic pottery played utilitarian, social and spiritual roles in San, Xhosa and Zulu culture in particular, defying Western categorisations of “art” as distinct from “design”. The diversity and innovation we are witnessing now in contemporary South African ceramics – from the deeply symbolic sculptures of Andile Dyalvane to the large-scale ceramic furniture of Chuma Maweni – pivots on this tradition, which finds its most well-known form in the beer pot, or ukhamba, a communal drinking vessel passed from person to person at ceremonies and social occasions.

As a medium, clay offers these artists broad scope for creative expression and storytelling. Studio Visit takes us behind the scenes of their practice as they foreground new techniques and achieve some of their most technically ambitious work to date. The booth will recreate a ceramic studio with large atelier windows and the 65 new ceramic works displayed on banding wheels, pedestals and tables, including a large hand-carved timber table by Chuma Maweni with collectable furniture by two of Africa’s most accomplished and recognised designers, Cheick Diallo and Gregor Jenkin, adding to the atmosphere of the studio setting.

Looking for more on local art? Take a look at Jan-Ernst’s new Ocean Pop Collection.

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In his fourth solo show, world renowned South African ceramic artist Andile Dyalvane pays homage to his ancestors with a large-scale selection of sculptural ceramic seating, premiering at Southern Guild in Cape Town from 10 December 2020 and at Friedman Benda in New York City in June 2021.

iThongo, an isiXhosa term, Andile’s mother tongue, translates to “ancestral dreamscape”, the spiritual passage in which ancestors communicate (uYalezo uLwimi lwabaPhantsi). In an unprecedented symbolic move, Andile’s work, which consists of 18 sculptural stools, chairs and benches, travelled to his native homestead of Ngobazana in rural Eastern Cape, creating a special opportunity for Andile’s family and community to view his work before it is exhibited in galleries.

Hand-moulded from terracotta clay, the seats feature rounded bases that are positioned close to the ground, which is hailed as an ancient portal for ancestral communion. The round bases anchor the sculptural backrests, which in contrast to the low seats, are almost one metre in height.

“My intentions with developing an extended body of work under the title iThongo is to highlight a gathering of dreams, seated in the soul, held by the spirits of our ancestors,” says Andile. “Symbols are visual tools harnessed to impart meanings more effectively within messages – codes, if you will – that aid stories. The language of dreams is symbolic and therefore realised as uyalezo, messages from our ancestral spirits.”

Inspired by rural traditional structures and kraals, the seats are curved and spherical, which in Xhosa spiritual practices, allows for free exchange of energy while maintaining a link to nature.

From the outset, Andile’s work has been about preserving traditional Xhosa practices and language, dating back to his first show in 2016 at Friedman Benda. His process is unique, one that sees meaning encoded into the form and aesthetic of each piece. It begins with calligraphic ink drawings or glyphs, which he has used over the years to create his own symbolic dialogue. There are a series of almost 200 symbols derived from words that denote power in Xhosa culture, like entshonalanga (sunset), igubu (drum) and umalusi (herdsman). These words also speak specifically to rural life, as well as universal human concepts. The carved-out forms derived from these symbols are created from and dissolve into the clay surfaces of the sculptures. Everything has a meaning beyond its beauty.

The exhibition will feature a series of interdisciplinary collaborations that Andile initiated with other artists whose work intentionally delves into culture. “Sound healer and musician Nkosenathi Ernie Koela produced an immersive composition combining traditional instruments and sounds created by the artworks; Sisonke Papu, an Umtata-based poet, traditional healer and co-founder of the ISPILI Network in the Eastern Cape, wrote about Dyalvane’s use of symbology for the catalogue; and textile artist Onesimo Bam made a collection of garments hand-painted in indigo dye for him to wear for the ceremonial presentation of his work to his village and to gift to his elders,” says Southern Guild, who is hosting the exhibition in partnership with Friedman Benda.

iThongo will showcase 18 sculptural stools, chairs and benches exhibited in the custom of Xhosa ceremonial gatherings, in a circular arrangement around a fire hearth and herbal offerings – a coming home celebration and a “thank you” to the ancestors who once walked Andile’s home soil.

For more information, visit southernguild.co.za. Follow @southernguildgallery and andiledyalvane on Instagram to keep up to date.

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When a New York couple opted to build a home in Cape Town, they honoured its location by furnishing it with pieces by some of South Africa’s most renowned artists.

It was 13 years ago in 2007, that New Yorkers Jim Brett and Ed Gray were first enchanted by Cape Town. At the time, Jim was Head of Home at leading US retailer Anthropologie and was on a buying trip to South Africa with local design promoter and exporter Trevyn McGowan of The Guild Group. The three of them embarked on a trip cross-country, visiting the studios of artisans and designers, and formed an immediate bond. “I had never met anyone who could match my passion for handicraft and design,” Jim says of Trevyn.

“As we travelled to South Africa more often, we fell in love with the country, specifically Cape Town and its environs,” Ed says. So, it came as no surprise to family and friends when he and Jim decided to build a home for themselves in Hout Bay, just 30 minutes from Cape Town’s city centre, in which they hope to eventually spend six months of the year. Enlisting the help of Trevyn and her husband and business partner Julian, it was only natural that they would continue their trajectory of working with local designers, furnishing the home with pieces by some of the country’s most prominent names.

For the new build, the couple briefed architect Francois Swart of PADIA, requesting barn-like structures that suited the expansive property, on which they also have a guesthouse. Pitched roofs, a silo structure, and a variety of window shapes brought this vision to the fore. “As a reference to the informal way sheds grow into existence, there is a certain charm in the creative use and placing of windows,” says Francois, explaining the forms that are stackable and hidden in places, lowered for framed views in other instances, or inserted flush against walls in corners in order to allow light to flood in unobstructed. “The ‘journey’, surrounded by nature, can be experienced open or closed, and doubles as a pause area that can be used as a sunroom or gateway to the pool garden,” says Francois of the thoroughfare that offers glimpses of the furnishings beyond.

“It’s really enjoyable creating a world for people you care about,” says Trevyn of the project that has dressed the home in pieces by the likes of Gregor Jenkin, Charles Haupt and Laurie Wiid van Heerden, designers represented by the McGowans’ collectible design gallery, Southern Guild. “It’s a beautiful homage for the work we all continue to do for South African design,” she says of the result.

The newness of the home and its interiors paint a fresh African story for the US couple. “It’s important to us that our home feels warm and welcoming, with a degree of humility,” says Jim. Their modus operandi in eliciting the desired warmth was a crafted use of colour. An abstract artwork by John Murray mounted above the dining room cabinet – where striking tones mix with neutral hues – informed the colour choices for sofas, walls and decorative objects.

As with the varying patterns in John Murray’s painting, a myriad forms exist in the home – from tapered pot plants and circular nesting tables to curvaceous dining chairs and elliptical sideboards. “There are very few hard corners on the furniture items,” Jim explains of their brief. “Ovals, circles, or rectangles with rounded corners… it’s very subtle details that add a softness to the experience.” Equally considered is the collection of ceramic vessels. “I’m a bit of a ceramics junkie – I just can’t seem to stop buying them,” says Jim. It’s a passion he and Trevyn have shared since the start of their friendship, which made it easy for her to suggest new pieces by Andile Dyalvane, Zizipho Poswa, Anthony Shapiro, John Bauer, Madoda Fani and Chuma Maweni for the home.

What began as a professional exploration between Jim and Trevyn over a decade ago has resulted in a very personal celebration of South African design. “We still manage to inspire each other,” Jim smiles, gesturing around the home that proves his point.

Looking for more architectural inspiration? Take a look at the colourful, bold contemporary Johannesburg home.

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South Africa planter company, Indigenus, founded by Peter van der Post, has collaborated with ceramicist Andile Dyalvane and furniture designer Laurie Wiid van Heerden on two new planter collections.

Both Andile and Laurie’s understanding of the scale and impact of large sculptural planters, and how they impact the landscape of an outdoor area or an architectural space, made them the perfect collaborative partners.

The Bhaca collection, designed by Andile Dyalvane, is made of concrete and clay, the latter a material Andile often chooses to work with. The Bhaca range is available in fire-pit black, concrete grey or bleached white. Laurie’s Terra range sees an updated version of Mid-century Modern planters on stands, with the rectangular planters getting rounded corners, along with a solid base of sturdy Iroko wood.

Indigenus’s planters, which come standard with inner pot linings, are both lightweight and durable.

For more information, visit indigenus.co.za.

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Southern Guild will be taking a curated selection of South African design to Design Miami 2017, taking place from 6 – 10 December.

The gallery will be taking the work of Madoda Fani, Justine Mahoney, Adam Birch, Paco Pakdoust, Andile Dyalvane, Trevor Potter, Charles Haupt, David Krynauw, Otto du Plessis, Dokter and Misses, Jan Bekker, Porky Hefer, Meyer von Wielligh, Jesse Ede and John Vogel.

In this Q&A with Trevyn McGowan, co-founder of The GUILD Group, she talks to us about the feverish international interest in local art and design and what it means to be at Design Miami.

How do you think the voice of the African continent is currently being received and perceived in the international design world?

In the 15 years that we have been working with African design in a global context, I have been aware that the focus on Africa has steadily intensified. Interest in our product and inspiration drawn from our aesthetic, stories and cultures appear across many industries and an African sensibility permeates countless trends. Our exports of design pieces has also grown steadily with a significant number of new private and commercial clients each year. I think that the opening of Zeitz MOCAA, and the establishment of the Silo District by the V&A Waterfront, is one of the most important developments in bringing international attention to the continent.

In your opinion, why is the work of artist-designers and their free expression so important to the authenticity of creativity in the art and design industries?

Designers have to be groundbreaking, they have to have a unique viewpoint and a distinct voice and they have to have their own, specific narrative. As Africans, we can’t emulate design from other parts of the world, it isn’t at all interesting. We have such a unique and authentic starting point that this is what we need to draw on. One of our biggest focuses as curators is encouraging designers to forge their own paths, to study what the rest of the world is producing, and in doing so ensure that their perspective is fresh.

Since the founding of Southern Guild in 2008 how far would you say you and Julian are in accomplishing the vision you set out achieve?

No matter how much ground you cover there is always so much more to achieve, but I can say we are immensely proud of how far our industry has come. The quality of the production, the vision of the work and the confidence of both our established design heroes and younger, emerging stars is incredibly gratifying. We provided a platform and a framework and the designers rose magnificently to the challenge and opportunity. You only have to look at how far the work has come in the 10 years since we started and how our customer base is now split 50/50 local and international as South Africans begin to understand the category and the value of investment purchasing. We still have a huge amount that we want to do and you have to keep pushing in new directions. The plans for next year include participating at several new fairs, gallery partnership projects and developing new designers from different disciplines. We are also so happy in our new GUILD gallery space, which allows for so many more projects than before.

Do any of the pieces in the curated collection that you’re taking to Design Miami 2017 tell a particular story that resonates with you personally?

We are very connected with all of the work for Miami and of course finishing the year with what, for us, is the best fair in the world gives us a great opportunity to select the most important work from the year. A highlight is always what Porky Hefer produces – this year it is a sublime leather Toucan hanging seat (a collaborative piece with Woodheads) – we have sold his pieces to some of the most important collectors around the world from the fair, including the National Gallery of Victoria, a leading design museum. We are also extremely excited about showing seven of Andile Dyalvane’s works from his recent solo at GUILD Silo, Indladla. Andile has a very strong collector base in the US, including a top gallery we collaborate with, Friedman Benda. Meyer von Wielligh has produced an extraordinary large-scale, carved timber table and sideboard inspired by lightning strikes. In all, we will show over 30 pieces in our biggest selection to date.

5. What do you hope to take away from the Design Miami 2017 experience and bring back to SA and Southern Guild specifically?

Miami, during the art and design fairs, is the absolute highlight of our year. The city is so stimulating over this time with dozens of art fairs, performances, pop-ups and events, that you can’t look in any direction without being assaulted with stimulation and inspiration. We connect with our colleagues in the industry, including other global galleries, designers we have developed close friendships with [sic] like the Haas Brothers and Misha Khan, and we work with our partner galleries like R and Company on our collaborations for the coming year.

We learn so much as we spend seven days viewing the most important design in the world from the other 33 galleries that participate. Most importantly, we re-establish our own confidence in our work and our path, as the sales at the fair for South African design are always so strong. Starting every day in a warm turquoise sea and finishing it at a super hot party doesn’t hurt either.

For more information about GUILD, visit theguildgroup.co.za.

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Critically-acclaimed South African ceramicist Andile Dyalvane’s latest solo show, Idladla, opens on 15 September 2017 at Southern Guild in Cape Town.

His arresting use of clay allows him to showcase his heritage and strong connection to the earth through simple, strong techniques.

Earning himself residencies across the globe, Andile, who is the co-founder of Imiso Ceramics, is no stranger to the exhibition stage. His new show Idladla follows a premiere in New York with the solo Camagu at the Friedman Benda Gallery.

Idladla is an evolution from the angular forms of his previous show and sees the study and exploration of scale, scope and texture through gently rounded terracotta forms marked with incisions, motifs and hand imprints. His designs follow a strong architectural influence inspired by the parallels he noticed in structures as far from each other as Mali and New York.

Each piece is reflective of Andile’s central values of cultural preservation and gratitude. Idladla is a “reminder of what we’ve lost but also of what can still be saved,” he says.

The exhibition, running until 11 October 2017, coincides with the highly anticipated opening of Zeitz MOCAA, Africa’s first contemporary art museum, which opens to the public on 22 September. To find out more about Idladla, visit southernguild.co.za.

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Southern Guild is putting “future-primal” South African design on the map at Design Miami 2016.

This renowned fair sees a smorgasbord of talent gathering from across the globe to showcase or experience all things design.

The gallery has selected a group of talented local artists and designers representing South Africa with their contemporary “Afrofuturistic” edge.

“Southern Guild presents a future-primal take on collectible design,” explains the team at the gallery. “This sensory environment offers groundbreaking interpretations of classic forms, dictating a new pulse for limited edition African design.”

Artists and designers include Andile Dyalvane, Dokter and Misses, Atang Tshikare, Porky Hefer, Charles Haupt, Daniella Mooney, David Krynauw, OKHA, Jan Bekker of Sirkel Jewellery, Gerrit Giebel, Jesse Ede, Paco Pakdoust + Wayne Barker, Otto du Plessis and Xandre Kriel.

Design Miami runs from 30 November to 4 December 2016. Click here for more information.

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This short clip takes us into the Woodstock studio of local clay artists Andile Dyalvane and Zizipho Poswa of Imiso Ceramics.

Having been at the Biscuit Mill for a decade, Imiso ceramics is well known both locally and internationally for their proudly South African work.

Take a glimpse into the scarification, firing, glazing and decorating techniques of these skilled potters as they create intricate and beautiful pieces.

See more of their work at imisoceramics.co.za.

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