Zizipho Poswa (born ) is a South African artist and ceramicist based in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

Early life and education

Poswa was born on in

Mthatha Mthatha ( , ), alternatively rendered Umtata, is the main city of the King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality in Eastern Cape province of South Africa and the capital of OR Tambo District Municipality. The city has an airport, previously known ...

, and was educated at

Cape Peninsula University of Technology Cape Peninsula University of Technology () is a university in Cape Town, South Africa. It is the only university of technology in the Western Cape province, and is also the largest university in the province, with over 32,000 students. It was ...

. She studied textile design in college. She operates a studio called Imiso Ceramics with artist Andile Dyalvane. Imiso pots are carried by retailer

Anthropologie Anthropologie is an Economy of the United States, American retailer operating in the U.S., Canada, France, Germany and the UK that sells clothing, jewelry, home furniture, decorations, beauty products, and gifts. Anthropologie is part of Urban ...

Work

Poswa's work expresses African womanhood and the role that

Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...

women play in contemporary life. She produces large-scale, hand-built sculptural pieces. Her ''iLobola'' series draws inspiration from the Xhosa rituals of

lobola Lobolo or lobola in Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi, Silozi, and northern and southern Ndebele (''mahadi'' in Sesotho, ''mahari'' in Swahili, ''magadi'' in Sepedi, ''bogadi'' Setswana, ''lovola'' in Xitsonga, ''mamalo'' in Tshivenda, and ''roora'' in C ...

, or bride-wealth, the tradition of paying the bride's family with cattle. She has also drawn from the labor of

rural women Rural women play a fundamental role in rural communities around the world providing care and being involved in number of economic pursuits such as subsistence farming, petty trading and off-farm work. In most parts of the world, rural women work v ...

and traditional hairstyles.

Career

Powsa has shown her work at

Design Miami Design Miami/ is an American design company that holds two annual flagship collectible design fairs in Miami, Florida and Basel, Switzerland. Design Miami/ also holds fairs in Paris and Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chines ...

, Salon Art + Design, and Southern Guild gallery. Her work was included in the exhibition ''

Before Yesterday We Could Fly ''Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room'' is an art exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The exhibit, which opened on November 5, 2021, uses a period room format of installation to envision the past, ...

'' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her first solo exhibit in the United States, "iiNtsika zeSizwe (The Pillars of the Nation)" was held at New York’s Galerie56 in the Spring of 2023. Their works are in these collections:

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...

References

External links

Imiso Ceramics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poswa, Zizipho South African contemporary artists 21st-century South African women artists South African designers South African ceramicists South African women ceramicists 21st-century ceramists Living people 1979 births People from Mthatha Xhosa people Created via preloaddraft