BOEMO DIALE

Boemo Diale is a multi-disciplinary artist who grew up navigating different racial and socio-political structures in Rustenburg and the suburbs of Johannesburg as a young mixed-race woman.

As an exploration of identity, generational trauma, spirituality, and desire, at times suspended between the rural and the urban, cultural inheritance and autonomy, symbolism and reality, Diale’s visual narration takes on a dream-like articulation. Caught within the confines of a vessel or pushed up against the borders of canvas or Fabriano, her voluptuous obsidian and more pragmatic bodies take turns resisting against and then complying with the limitations both tangible and abstract, and are set against iridescent primordial environments - tropical cutouts and vivid graffitied universes. Rather than incongruent, her playful, bright and layered use of spray paint, ink, pastel and acrylic paint and form signals a deconstruction of struggle, vulnerability and fierce questioning about her sense of place impacted by maternal relationships, community and global tropes. There is reclaimed power and agency in her explosive palette and expression.

Each image is used as self-reflection with consideration to the past, present and future, dreams and manifestations. Using vibrant hues and compositions, Diale aims to create visual narratives that evoke a sense of spirituality and transcendence by juxtaposing surreal imagery, San rock art, African symbols of devotion and intuitive mark-making, with the utilitarian pot as motif to serve as a vessel to carry meaning.

Diale explores dimensionality through ceramic works modelled on her painted creations, the addition of carved ‘Zambia’ frames in collaboration with Rabson Bwalya, and constructing the setting of her work as part of an exhibit, creating metas within her practice, a play on the idea of patterns and the multidimensionality of artistic practice and display.

With a degree in Film and Television from the University of Witwatersrand, Diale has had work featured in the following group exhibitions: ‘Re-form’, at The Atelier, Johannesburg, and Cubicle Series at Everard Read, Cape Town (2023).

Her first solo ‘Permaculture’ was held at Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg (2021) followed by ‘Pink Room’, an installation and performance at P72 Projects, Johannesburg (2021). ‘No Matter How Far I Run’ (2023) is Diale’s second solo exhibition with Kalashnikovv Gallery. Recently Diale had a booth in the Tomorrows/Today section at ICTAF where she won the Artist Prize (2024), shortly followed by “The orange tree of Lemenong” at Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town (2024).