RICKY AYANDA DYALOYI
(b. 1974 Gugulethu, Cape Town)
Ricky Dyaloyi’s oeuvre has its roots in the Thupelo programme – a workshop that encouraged artistic growth by exchanging ideas, experiences, techniques and disciplines within a shared space or studio. The programme started in the 1980s in Johannesburg and later was brought to Cape Town in the 1990s.
Dyaloyi’s imagery and thematics evolved concurrently with South Africa’s first democratic elections – a momentous period in South Africa’s history when there was an influx of discourse and exchange between all South African artists in the country. Dyaloyi’s style of painting reflects ordinary citizens going about their daily lives, rendered in heightened colours to reveal the effervescent quality of the community and people with whom he lives. With an uncanny determination, Dyaloyi aims to unravel the simple mysteries of the human condition through his medium of choice: oil paint.
Dyaloyi continues to explore the unerring dynamism and apparently indomitable spirit of everyday citizens in urban South Africa. “Each piece visually narrates the diverse stories of survival, from overcoming marginalization to embracing hope,” he explains. His paintings serve as both homage and exhortation to the workers, commuters, the street vendors, that surge through his canvases, at once legion and yet individually depicted and dignified by his hand.
Dyaloyi’s genius is his ability to see how the trees make up the wood. The individuals in his multitudes are teased out just enough for us to recognise each figure as both idiosyncratic and archetypal. Because he relays stories about everyday resilience and endurance being the sum of a people’s constituent parts, all the protagonists get equal treatment and have equal significance. As if to amplify this, Dyaloyi paints portraits which, juxtaposed with his crowd scenes, invite us to zoom in and single out people in the crowd, and recognise or imagine each of their unique contributions to the story.
“Through these visual narratives,” Dyaloyi comments, “I explore the shared human spirit that persists, adapts, and thrives – an artistic ode to the daily perseverance that guides us toward a better tomorrow.”
Everard Read presented Dyaloyi's work at Expo Chicago in 2025 and 2024, and 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London in 2015, and his work was spotlighted at the same fair in 2018 by Spier Arts Trust. Everard Read published a monograph on Dyaloyi in 2016 and an essay on the artist is included in Ashraf Jamal's ‘In The World: Essays on Contemporary South African Art’, published in 2017.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 Abahambi Balomhlaba (Those that roam the Earth), Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
2023 Impilo ifun'abomeleleyo (Living Requires Strength), Everard Read, Cape Town & 16 on Lerotholi, Cape Town, South Africa
2022 Ukuphuma kwe langa (Light Ushering in the Dawn of a New Day), Everard Read, London, UK
2021 Isiphambuka Sendlela (The Crossroads), Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
2020 Limits of our Longing, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2018 A Paradox of Our Times, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2015 Shaman of the Everyday, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2012 Noma Kanjani, Gallery MOMO, Johannesburg, South Africa
2011 Isifuba Siphandle, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2009 Recent works, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2006 Solo exhibition, Empathy Hollard, Johannesburg, South Africa
2005 Solo exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2003 New Works, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
2001 A selection of works, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
1998 Solo exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026 ArtParis, with Everard Read, Paris, France
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, SA
2025 EXPO CHICAGO, with Everard Read, Chicago, USA
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, SA
2024 Winter Collection, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Locating Identity, 16 on Lerotholi, Cape Town, South Africa
EXPO CHICAGO, with Everard Read, Chicago, USA
Southern Light, Everard Read, London, UK
2023 What I Feel When I Think About The Cosmos, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
Abantu Bethu, 16 on Lerotholi, Cape Town, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read Cape Town, South Africa
110 Year Anniversary Exhibition, Everard Read, London, UK
2022 Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read Cape Town, South Africa
Things I’d like to remember, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2021 In Conversation, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Oasis: 25th anniversary group exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2020 The Portrait Show, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
IMAGO, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Journeys of the Mind, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
2019 Winter, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Southern Aspect, Everard Read, London, United Kingdom
2018 Winter, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read Cape Town, South Africa
Material Gains, Stellenbosch University Museum, Stellenbosch, South Africa
2016 Opening exhibition, Everard Read, London, United Kingdom
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read Cape Town, South Africa
2015 1:54 African Art Fair, with Everard Read, London, United Kingdom
Winter, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
EMPIRE, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2014 Summer Season, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
The City, Imibala Gallery in association with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Winter show, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2013 100, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Possessed, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2012 Winter Show, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Small Works, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2011 15th Anniversary, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Isibane Lookout Hill, Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa
2010 Khumalo, Mzimba, Dyaloyi, three man show, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
View from the South, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2009 Sex, Power, Money, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Dyaloyi & Sekete, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
The City, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2006 Small works, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2004 Identity, The ID of South African Artist, Van den Ende Collection, Amsterdam, Netherlands
10 - Celebrating Ten Years of Democracy, Iziko SA National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
C.A.P., Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
Zabalaza, Oxford University, Oxford, UK
1996 Sicula sixhentsa xa sisonke (we sing and dance together), curated by Harris Wilster, travelling exhibition, North America
1990 Art from South Africa, curated by David Elliot, Oxford Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, UK
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Cape Grace Hotel, South Africa
Hillard, South Africa
Santam, South Africa
Sanlam, South Africa
Iziko South African National Gallery, South Africa
Nando’s, South Africa and United Kingdom
Van den Ende, Netherlands
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