Simphiwe Mbunyuza’s Vibrant Ceramics Evoke His South African Ancestry
Portrait of Simphiwe Mbunyuza. Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery.
As a young boy, Simphiwe Mbunyuza molded farm animals—cows, chickens, and goats—out of the clay along the riverbanks of his hometown, Butterworth, a small village near South Africa’s eastern coast. “I would look after livestock with other boys, and we would go to the riverbanks and swim.…We would make cows with clay, and that was the only thing I knew about clay,” Mbunyuza recalled in an interview with Artsy.
Today, these formative childhood experiences provide the seed for his first solo exhibition at David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles, a major moment of recognition for the artist. One standout work in “INTLOMBE”—on view until August 24th—depicts a chicken, a nod to the small animals he saw as a youth, but realized on a dramatically larger scale. ISIKHUKHUKAZI (2024) is among 12 ceramic sculptures organized in a circle at the gallery. The name and format of the show are inspired by the musical gatherings of Xhosa-speaking peoples and reflect the communal and spiritual aspects of Mbunyuza’s South African heritage through the medium that first captured his imagination: clay.
Born in 1989, Mbunyuza studied at Walter Sisulu University in South Africa, followed by several residencies, including A.I.R. Vallauris in Vallauris, France, in 2017. There, he met fellow ceramist Stuart Asprey, an undergraduate coordinator at the University of Oklahoma, who persuaded Mbunyuza to apply. Since earning his MFA there in 2021, Mbunyuza has presented solo exhibitions with Marianne Boesky Gallery in 2021 and Mindy Solomon Gallery in 2023. Now an artist in residence at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana, Mbunyuza has been on a meteoric rise since graduating.
The works in “INTLOMBE” are crafted using a coiling method that allows Mbunyuza to layer and add texture to the sculptures, crafting striking juxtapositions across all 12 sculptures. As Mbunyuza creates new pieces, he allows the clay to guide his hands, forgoing preliminary sketches and embracing the unpredictability of spontaneous creativity.
Simphiwe Mbunyuza, installation view of “INTLOMBE” at David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, 2024. Photo by Jeff McLane. Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery.
“As I build, [the clay] overpowers me,” said Mbunyuza, discussing his approach to constructing his massive ceramic sculptures. He explained that he tries to work with the direction of the clay, often ending up with an unintended form. “I can control it [at first], and then it’s controlling me in a different direction,” he said, noting that he’s often surprised by the end product.
In his ceramics, Mbunyuza combines color and pattern through erratic markmaking, motifs like houses or stars, and the use of oxide washes, which enhance the texture of the surface to create muted shades. These oxide washes imitate the appearance of imbhola, botanically produced cosmetic pigments used for centuries by Xhosa women. Meanwhile, the broader palette of his work is inspired by his homeland’s natural environment, seen clearly in the varying yellows, greens, and oranges at the base of the five-foot-tall vessel, NALI’TAMSANQA (2024).
“I look at the fields from an aerial perspective and see the patterns and the textures of the landscape—some are green, or the grass is still dry, or the fields are just plowed: It gives different colors, views, and textures,” Mbunyuza said.
Meanwhile, YEMYEM (2023), a totemic piece resembling a headless female form, is adorned with ceremonial-looking attire. Zig-zagging and curved lines segment the headless body, while above the hips, a series of tassel-like appendages lay on ribbon-shaped designs, evoking the elegance of traditional Xhosa dress.
Far away from home, Mbunyuza still finds a spiritual connection with his childhood experiences of clay, even with the world around him in the United States. He often hikes the nearby Mount Helena, where he prays at the peak or in the surrounding forest. It’s in this persisting connection to his spiritual roots that he finds comfort and motivation with his ceramic sculptures. Arranged in a circle at David Kordansky, the sculptures evoke the musical Intlombe gatherings back home, where Mbunyuza’s spiritual roots remain.
“Being spiritually inclined and profoundly connected to my ancestral spiritual world and culture opens a whirl of great ideas that never runs out,” Mbunyuza said. “It is this spiritual whirl that gives birth to the work I make.”
