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 fi rst 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

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