RICKY DYALOYI
(b.1974, Gugulethu, Cape Town, South Africa)

From a young age Ricky Dyaloyi felt inspired to draw and sketch the vibrant community and life that surrounded him in the township. His creativity and love for the arts was encouraged and nurtured by his parents during his adolescent years and by 1988, at age fourteen, he was attending part-time art classes at CAP (Community Arts Project). From this training he was propelled to participate in workshops and exhibitions.

Dyaloyi’s imagery and thematic evolved around the time of South Africa’s first democratic elections – a momentous period in South Africa’s history where there was an influx of discourse and exchange between all South African artists in the country. His oeuvre therefore fits into a broader genre of South African painting, which 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 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. The artist pays special attention to the South African context and hopes to highlight “… the black people’s level of existence”. With an uncanny determination, Dyaloyi aims to unravel the simple mysteries of the human condition through his medium of choice - oil paint.

His 2015 exhibition Shaman of the Everyday at the Everard Read, Cape Town, continued this pertinent exploration into human existence and relationships, but delved further, focusing on interior spaces, whilst exploring personal and shared environments.

Everard Read presented Dyaloyi's work at the 2015 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London and his work was spotlighted at the same fair in 2018 by Spier Art 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: Eassays on Contemporary South African Art, 2017. 

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
 
2022
Solo Exhibiton - UKUPHUMA KWE LANGA  |  LIGHT USHERING IN THE DAWN OF A NEW DAY, Everard Read, London, UK

2019
Southern Aspect - A Group Exhibition, Everard Read, London, UK

2018
A Paradox of Our Times, CIRCA, Cape Town, South Africa

2015
Shaman of the Everyday, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2011
Isifuba Siphandle, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2009
Recent works, Everard Read, Cape Town, 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

2017
Summer Exhibition, Group show, Everard Read, London, UK

2016
Group Exhibition, CIRCA gallery London, United Kingdom
Everard Read Cape Town booth, Cape Town Art Fair, South Africa

2015
CIRCA Johannesburg Booth, 1:54 African Art Fair, Somerset House, 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

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
10 - Celebrating ten years of Democracy, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.
C.A.P., Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, Cape Town. South Africa.
Zabalaza Exhibition, Oxford University, Oxford , United Kingdom.