Bambo Sibiya South Africa, 1986

Bambo Sibiya (Bambolwami Jose Sibiya, b. 1986, KwaThema, Springs, South Africa) is a painter and printmaker whose work celebrates community, masculine identity and the sub-cultures of Black South Africa, guided by the Zulu philosophy of Ubuntu Ngabantu. Trained at Artist Proof Studio, Johannesburg, where he collaborated on the monumental linocuts of William Kentridge and Diane Victor, he works across linocut, lithography, drypoint and charcoal and acrylic on canvas. His best-known cycles portray the Swenkas, the working-class dandies of the migrant labour hostels, and the everyday dignity of township life, from jazz sessions to figures gathered around a radio. Winner of the Absa L'Atelier Gerard Sekoto Award (2012), he completed residencies at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, and his works are held in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. He lives and works near Johannesburg.