Dathini Mzayiya

b. Queenstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa, 1979. Lives in Cape Town.

Dathini Mzayiya skillfully blends drawing and painting in his striking renditions of everyday subjects.

Portrait of a Revolutionary edited by Nadine Cloete For African Noise Foundation. 

Umfanekiso ( Reflections)
Filmed by Dathini Mzayiya, edited by Caleb Heymann South Africa for the One Minute Video Festival.2008

Education

2001: Community Arts Project, Woodstock, Cape Town, South Africa.
2000: Graphic Design and Advertising, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town.
1999 Advertising and Marketing, Advertising College of South Africa, Cape Town.

Workshops & residencies

2015: Studio 147 Residency, Cape Town.
2009: Glenfiddich Artist in Residence, Glenfiddich Distillery, Dufftown, Scotland.
2007: Arts and Media Access Centre (AMAC) students Workshop by City Skin design, Table Mountain, Cape Town.
2006: National Heritage Council, African Art Museum, Debre Zeit, Ethiopia.
2006: Umsi (The smoke) painting workshop, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town.
2005: Mural Global Agenda 21 under UNESCO, Inda Gymnasium, Aachen, Germany.
2005: Mural Global Agenda 21 at the train station, Aachen-Schanz, Germany.
2005: Mural Global Agenda 21, Khayelitsha Training Centre, Cape Town.
2005: Mural Global Agenda 21, Swop painting workshop with students from Mitchells Plain, Manneneberg and Khayelitsha, Cape Town.
2005: Mural Global Agenda 21, Painting workshop with AIDS-affected children from the Fikelela Children’s Home, Khayelitsha, Cape Town.
2004: Thupelo Workshop, Iziko South African National Gallery (Annexe), Cape Town.
2002: Thupelo Artists Workshop, Annexe, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town.
2002: Ukuzoba (To draw): From Representational Painting to Abstraction, Community Arts Project, Woodstock, Cape Town.
2002: Ukuzoba (To draw) public workshops, Baden, Austria; Villach, Switzerland, and Berlin (with Trish Lovemore and Boyce Magandela)
2002: Mural painting workshop, Nomlingaliselo Primary School, New Crossroads, Cape Town (with Sipho Hlathi, Lonwabo Kilani and Ndikhumbule Ngqinambi).

Solo exhibitions

2013: Onder die Reenboog Strale, Greatmore Studios, Cape Town.
2005: Pop-up exhibition, BBK Gallery, Aachen.

Group exhibitions

2020: Untitled 24.09, Gallery Fanon, Johannesburg.
2019: Kulcha Festival, St John’s College, Johannesburg.
2017: Athlone in Mind, Cape of Good Hope, Cape Town. 
2018: Still Life and Life Drawings: A Moment Captured or Preserved?, Iziko South African National Art Gallery, Cape Town.
2016: The Art of Humanity, The Pratt Institute, New York.
2016: People You May Know, Factory of the Arts, Cape Town.
2016: #SITDITAF, North West University Gallery, Mafikeng.
2015: Imago Mundi: The Art of Humanity, Rome.
2015: Map of the New Art, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice. 
2014: Imago Mundi: The Art of Humanity, Treviso.
2011: Kadafi, The Bag Factory, Johannesburg.
2010: The Glenffidich Artist in Residence, The Rainbow Experience Gallery, Mandela Rhodes Place, Cape Town.
2010: Nothing is Everything, Word of Art, Woodstock Industrial Centre, Cape Town.
2010: Ityala aliboli/Debt don’t rot, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg.
2010: Milestones, Greatmore Studios, Woodstock, Cape Town.
2010: 30 x 30 artists, Gill Allderman Gallery, Kenilworth, Cape Town.
2010: Botaki, Albany Museum, Grahamstown; Mecufe Festival, Bloemfontein.
2009: Umahluko Cape ’09, Lookout Hill, Khayelitsha, Cape Town.
2009: Dada South, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town.
2009: Untitled exhibition, Glenfiddich Distillery, Dufftown, Scotland.
2008: Milk Can Art , 34 Long Street Art Gallery, Cape Town.
2008: Winter Open Studio, Greatmore Studios, Woodstock, Cape Town.
2007: Africa South, Association for Visual Arts, Cape Town.
2007: Nine South African Artists, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg.
2006: Umsi/Smoke, AVA, Cape Town.
2006: Nine South African Artists, Hilton Hotel, Addis Ababa.
2005: Atelier Haus Aachen Gallery (with Thulani Shuku), Aachen, Germany; Austria and Switzerland.
2004: Artwork Project, Chat Room Communication and Marketing, Cape Town.
2004: Studio exhibition (with Thulani Shuku), Mowbray, Cape Town.
2004: Live Action Painting on Canvas, Cape Town Festival, Company’s Gardens, Cape Town.
2003: Art Angels, Gardens Presbyterian Church, Gardens, Cape Town.
2003: Angels without Wings, Cape Of Good Hope Castle, Cape Town.
2003: Vision, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town.
2003: Workshop exhibitions (with Boyce Magandela and Trish Lovemore), Maria: Wörth, Reifnitz, Lienz and Kitzbuhel, Austria.
2002: Absolut Secret 7: Absolut Voyeur, AVA, Cape Town.
2002: Members exhibition, Association for Visual Arts, Cape Town.
2002: Galerie Halde 14, Balden, Switzerland.
2002: Why Cry?, Greatmore Studios, Woodstock.
2002: Ukozoba (To draw) workshop exhibition, Iziko South African National Gallery (Annexe), Cape Town.
2002: Thupelo workshop exhibition, Iziko South African National Gallery (Annexe), Cape Town.
2001: Afro metamorphosis’, Community Arts Project (CAP), Cape Town.

Gugulective Exhibitions

2014: Gugulective Arts Collective exhibition during Creative Week 2014, KwaMlamli’s Place, Gugulethu, Cape Town.
2010: 1910-2010: From Pierneef to Gugulective, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town.
2009: Subversion, Gugulective Arts Collective exhibition, Hamburg, Germany.
2008: South Africa Performs, HAU Theatre, Berlin (As part of Gugulective Arts Collective and with other global collectives)
2007: Akuchanywa Apha (No pissing), Gugulective, KwaMlamli’s Place, Guguletu; Blank Projects, Cape Town.

Awards

Youth Veteran Award from Khayelitsha Youth Development Forum (KYDF), Cape Town.

Collections

Foreign Press Centre, Cape Town
Chris Barnard Heart Centre, UCT
Villach Town Hall, Austria
Private collections in South Africa and Europe

Ben Verghese, Dathini Mzayiya: Letting the music take him, (ASAI, 2020).

Mario Pissarra, Dathini Mzayiya: Umsi, (ASAI, 2006).

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