Zizipho Poswa is a Cape Town-based ceramicist whose large-scale work takes inspiration from her own personal history as a Xhosa woman and artist living in contemporary South Africa. Zizipho Poswa ceramics embody elegance, beauty, delicacy, abstraction, Zizipho Poswa love for colour, texture and pattern, and her appreciation for handmade processes.  

For nearly two decades, South African ceramicist and designer Zizipho Poswa has been carving ancient stories in ceramics. She’s frequently relied on clay, but she experiments with other unusual material too, like bronze. Zizipho Poswa uses her textile knowledge to create beautiful patterns and unique patterns for her work. The pieces she creates are often large and, with a very contemplative intuition, interpret the charm of ancestral stories.

Never one to just scratch the surface, Poswa’s work dives deep, sifting through stereotypes about her culture and chronicling her evolving experiences as a Xhosa woman. Zizipho Poswa’s transcendent sculptures are a physical manifestation of the love, care, fortitude, and dignity that radiates off these women, the true pillars of every African nation.

Images courtesy of Southern Guild