The Afrovibes Festival, in collaboration with ZAM Magazine, proudly presents a retrospective exhibition with the works of graphic designer, artist and activist Sindiso Nyoni.
Nyoni is inspired by many great artistic souls. Enter Grapus, the collective of French designers formed during the hopeful and rebellious days of May 1968. Enter Thami Mnyele, an artist and member of the MEDU collective, murdered by apartheid death squads in 1985. His memory is honoured in the Amsterdam Thami Mnyele artist residence, a home for many African artists since the early 90s. And there is Emory Douglas, an American graphic artist and Black Panther.
Nyoni has much in common with all of these activist creatives, including militancy and assertiveness. And just as it was for his predecessors, humour is a sharp weapon in the struggle. But Nyoni’s horizons are broader, too. His Johannesburg-based Studio R!ot also serves international brands and companies, including Hennessy, Netflix, Nike and Penguin. An exciting balancing act!
We are thrilled by his works, examples of the explosive outputs from a loud-mouthed new generation of African changemakers emerging across the performing and visual arts, film, photography and investigative journalism. Afrovibes and ZAM share a passion for these promising and quirky creators, researchers and tormentors of power. Through the annual Afrovibes Festival and ZAM’s annual ImagineMandela-Live! event and The Kleptopcracy Project, both our platforms channel their energy, expressions and experiences to an ever-growing audience.
Amsterdam, October 2022
In times of discord, how can you convey the urgency of the present? The poster is an open-door medium for contemplation and plays a liberating function in society. Despite its mobile restrictions, the poster is fundamentally a medium packed with thoughts, aspirations, and messages that bubble up inside a single frame. It’s an opportunity to reconsider the paradoxes of daily existence.
Through the poster creations by the prolific Zimbabwean designer Sindiso Nyoni, R!ot by Design serves as an invitation to consider the urgency of the African perspective and its unfoldings.
We chose works that spoke on problems of inequality, social justice, and postcolonial misuse of power to create a concise review of Sindiso’s outstanding career. These works closely interacted with the poster art’s expressive potential.
Sindiso’s visual elegance rests in the skilful integration between activist and commercial work while including critical commentary through design. One can trace similarities of that ambivalence and flexibility in the central tenets of poster-making — a call for reflection through textual and/or visual graphics. A form of straightfoward communication. From riots to top brand advertisements, we speak the same language.
In line with the artist’s body of work as a multidisciplinary graphic designer, activist, and contemporary illustrator, we have put together a multitude of series and temporalities. The experience of African Americans influenced the social commentary on Black Lives Matter. It ranged from the ancestral series, which included powerful pictures of African political figures such as Bantu Stephen Biko and Nelson Mandela. Along with certain prints ordered by the South African band The Brother Moves On, the Legendary African Football Heroes series appears as the wingers of our poster riot.
In addition to shows in New York, London, Zagreb, Berlin, and Mexico City, Nyoni’s work is now available to you in the Netherlands, thanks to a collaboration between Afrovibes Festival and ZAM Magazine.
Rafael Roncato, curator
The Banishment: A Power ful Shedow, 2021 Digital Archival Print
Nomzamo, 2021 Digital Archival Print
Okumhlophe, 2021 Digital Archival Print
Black Prince, 2017 Digital Archival Print
The Rainbow, 2015 Digital Archival Print
Untitled, 2011 Digital Archival Print
Ukuziqhenya, 2018 Digital Archival Print
Tolika Mtoliki by The Bro ther Moves On, 2021 Digital Archival Print
Editions
sale
We Face Forward, 2020 Digital Archival Print
Ten Days in Harlem for Faber & Faber publishers, 2020 Digital Archival Print
Violence is for the weak, 2018 Digital Archival Print
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Shiyanomayini by The Brother Moves On, 2015 Digital Archival Print
_Sindiso Nyoni (aka R!OT) is a Bulawayo (Zimbabwe) born, self-developed Graphic artist who has been described as a contemporary illustrator, activist, street artist, and multidisciplinary graphic designer.
He has collaborated on projects that have won Cannes Lions Awards. His work has been exhibited in the Guggenheim Bilbao, The Vitra Design Museum, and The Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City, to name a few.
>>> www.studioriot.com
Tumelo Moema
The exhibition was made possible with the financial support of the Stimuleringsfonds voor de Creatieve Industrie, Het Nieuwe Instituut en de Van Ewyck Stichting.
_Sindiso thanks to: Afrovibes Festival (Team), ZAM Magazine (Team), Ndumiso Nyoni, Sophie Nyoni, Khule Mayisa, Tumelo Moema, Merc Tlou, Lightfarm Print (Johannesburg) and my eternal inspiration, my son, Kimani Savumelana Mike Nyoni.
_Afrovibes + ZAM thanks to: Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis, CMK1 – Cathal McKee, Peter Kersten, Anna Kućma, Bart Luirink, Bob Meijs, Thami Mnyele Foundation, The Black Archives.
R!ot by Design is organised as part of the annual Afrovibes Festival in collaboration with ZAM Magazine . Artist Sindiso Nyoni Curator/producer/catalogue Rafael Roncato Khulekani Mayisa
