

Tyrone Appollis
b. Cape Town, 1957
Visual artist, musician and poet since the 1970s, Appollis works explore the interface between the challenges of the everyday and the limitlessness of the spirit and imagination.
Art Education
Residencies
2004 Pro Helvetia Residency, Altes Spital, Solothurn, Switzerland.
1989 Toured Europe on British Council grant.
Exhibitions (solo)
2010 The Framery Gallery, Sea Point, Cape Town.
2001 No Apologies, Association for Visual Art, Cape Town.
1997 AVA, Cape Town.
1993 Karen McKerron Gallery, Johannesburg.
1992 Chelsea Gallery, Wynberg, Cape Town.
1988 South African Association of Art, Cape Town.
1982 Rocklands Library, Mitchells Plain, Cape Town.
Exhibitions (group)
2010 1910-2010: From Pierneef to Gugulective, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town. International Museum Day, George Museum, George, South Africa.
2009 Precedents and Currents, Mayibuye Centre, UWC, Bellville, Cape Town. Decade, Sanlam Art Gallery, Bellville, Cape Town.
2007 africa south, AVA, Cape Town.
2006 Self portraits, Chelsea Gallery, Cape Town. Botaki 4, Old Mutual Asset Managers, Pinelands, Cape Town. Boland Kelder (with Garth Erasmus and Sophie Peters), Paarl.
2005 Botaki 2, OMAM; Botaki 3, OMAM, Cape Town.
2004 Arty milk cans, AVA, Cape Town.
2000 Itheko lokuza nethemba elitsha (A Celebration for Bringing New Hope), Bell-Roberts Fine Art Gallery, Cape Town.
1999 Post Cards from South Africa, Axis Gallery, New York.
1996 Cognizance, Ingqwalasela, Herkening., AVA, Cape Town.
1993 Salon Biennial, Grand Palais, Paris. I wish you well on your way (Tribute to John Muafangejo), Chelsea Gallery, Wynberg, Cape Town.
1991 Cape Town Triennial, South African National Gallery, Cape Town.
1990 Freedom Now, Conservatoire of Music, Windhoek, Namibia.
1989 Rahmen Gallerie (with Peter Clarke and Ishmael Thyssen), Langei, Germany.
1988 Artists against Apartheid, Luxurama Theatre, Wynberg, Cape Town.
Performances (poetry reading and music)
2010 Geroeste Musiek, Tyrone in Concert, Artscape, Athlone Civic Centre, Cape Town.
2009 Cape Town Book Fair (reading to children his new story The Silver Saxophone and The Magic Paintbrush), CTICC, Cape Town. Tyrone’s Geroeste Musiek, Voorkamer Fesival, Darling, Cape Town.
2008 Cape Town Book Fair, book launch, Train to Mitchells Plain, Cape Town. Poetry Africa, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.
2007 Joe Schaffers and fellow musicians (with Tyrone Appollis and Boeta Katjie), District Six Museum, Cape Town.
Public collections
Iziko South African National Gallery, University of Cape Town, University of Western Cape; Western Cape Provincial Government; Durban Art Gallery; Pretoria Art Museum; South Africa House, London; Department of Education, South Africa; Groote Schuur Hospital; Constitutional Court of South Africa; SASOL and SANLAM.
Private collections
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Judge Albie Sachs, former President Nelson Mandela and former President Thabo Mbeki.
Commissions
2007 Ingrid Jonker Memorial, Gordon’s Bay, Cape Town. Sunday Tmes Heritage Project.
2006 Woolworths bags, Cape Town.
2004 Mural painting, Bridgeville Primary School, Cape Town.
1998 J&B Metropolitan Horse Race poster.
1997 City of Cape Town (painting for Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s Freedom of the City).
1996 SA Gourmet Festival poster.
Publications (books, magazines, newspapers, videos and catalogues)
2010 Friends pitch in for jazz maestro cancer
2009 Cultural vagabond has his own flair, Cape Times, August 27. T Appollis, The Silver Saxophone, Cambridge University Press, Cape Town. Appollis & Maclay-Mayers, The Magic Paintbrush, Cambridge University Press, Cape Town. S Hundt (ed.), Decade, Sanlam Life Insurance, Bellville (exhibition catalogue).
2008 Tyrone Appollis, Train to Mitchells Plain, Tyrone Appollis, Cape Town. Appollis art exhibition, Cape Times, September 9.
2006 S Hundt (ed.), Tyrone Appollis-Today and yesterday, Sanlam Life Insurance, Bellville. Appollis presents a study of contradictions, Cape Argus, September 1. Mario Pissarra, Botaki Exhibition 4: Conversation with Tyrone Appollis, Old Mutual Asset Managers, Cape Town (exhibition catalogue).
2005 C Blum, Kapkunst/Cape Art: 12 Portraits of South African Artists, Murmann, Hamburg. Mario Pissarra, Botaki: Exhibition 2: Conversations with Sophie Peters, OMAM, Cape Town.
2004 M Darrol et. al, Art for Aids Orphans Auction, Paperpback, Cape Town. Mario Pissarra, Botaki: Conversations with South African artists, OMAM, Cape Town. The rights of a child, Kwela Books, Cape Town & Lemniscaat, Rotterdam.
2003 McGee and Voyiya, The Luggage is Still Labelled: Blackness in South african Art (dvd).
1993 M Martin et. al, Made in Wood: Work from the Western Cape, South African National Gallery, Cape Town.
1991 C Till et. al, Cape Town Triennial, Rembrandt van Rijn Art Foundation, Cape Town. Tribute Magazine. A Sitas, William Zungu-Xmas Story, Buchu Books, Cape Town.
1988 G Ogilvie, The Dictionary of South African Painters and Sculptors, Everard Read, Johannesburg. A Oliphant, Ten Years of Staffrider, Ravan Press, Johannesburg. R Rive, Emergency, David Philip Publishers, Claremont.
Links
Train to Mitchells Plain Tyrone Appollis
2008. ISBN-13: 978-0620411387
Conversations with Tyrone Appollis [essay written for exhibition catalogue]
This essay was written for Botaki Exhibition 4: Conversations with Tyrone Appollis curated by Mario Pissarra for Old Mutual Asset Managers, Cape Town, 2005
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