A leading voice in the field of contemporary ceramic arts, Andile Dyalvane seeks to honor his Xhosa heritage through his practice. With ceramics, Dyalvane connects to his ancestors and shares his personal story of healing. “Clay breathes. It’s alive with becoming and moves with my energy, listens and holds only what I’ve impressed upon it. It remembers and let’s go in the fire, and then becomes stronger,” says Dyalvane.
Dyalvane was born in 1978 on a cattle farm in Ngobozana, a small village in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. His work with clay or “umhlaba” (mother earth) reinforces an innate human connection to soil, a foundational connection that Dyalvane made while learning to farm as a child. He received a National Degree in Art and Design from Sivuyile Technical College in 1999 and a National Degree in Ceramic Design from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in 2003. After graduation, Dyalvane founded Imiso Ceramics in South Africa’s Western Cape in 2006.
He has exhibited extensively in South Africa and has been awarded residencies in Denmark, France, the United States, and Taiwan. Dyalvane’s work is in the permanent collections of the Iziko National Museum, Cape Town, South Africa; Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Port Elizabeth, South Africa; and Yingge Ceramic Museum, Taipei, Taiwan.
Dyalvane lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa.