Tiniyiko Makwakwa

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b. 1984 Tzaneen, South Africa

Tinyiko Makwakwa received her Bachelors in Applied Social Science at the University of Brighton, UK. She is a self-taught textile and fibre artist raised in Tzaneen where the rural homelands formed an important part of her relationship to nature and her ongoing fascination with organic matter.

Makwakwa’s studio practice is an experimental approach that shows a deep respect for the interwoven narratives of materials and plants, the landscape and the making process. Through the use of various needlework techniques, Tinyiko repurposes found textiles, garments and pre-used fabrics to create the basis for her compositions. Thereafter the artist begins the ecological process of cultivating coloraturas (handmade dyes) through organic and inorganic pigment, these dyes then color the fragmented forms that populate her work.

Exhibitions and projects by Tinyiko include; “Mow down the lawn” Ithuba Gallery Johannesburg 2018, Africa Textile Talks, MUS (2022), Waste Not Want Not at Shade Gallery, Johannesburg (2022), New Signings at Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg (2022) and Cosmos & Community at Kalashnikovv Gallery, Turbine Art Fair Johannesburg (2022) and Cape Town Art Fair (2023). Latitudes Fair Johannesburg (2023).